Odds and ends, 4/26/07

In several editorials, I have said it’s easy for other parts of West Virginia to laugh at what happens in Huntington, but they had better be careful, because Huntington’s problems often show up in other counties. It looks like our Detroit drug gangs have discovered rural West Virginia now.

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Huntington is about to build a skate park at Fairfield East Community Center. I don't know what it's going to have, but...

I've never understood the sculpture "Continuous Ascent" that used to be at the library and now is in front of the civic center. Maybe the skaters could find a practical use for it.

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AEP has issued its first Corporate Responsibility Report, in which it addresses climate change, among other things. Get more information here. I haven't read the whole thing, but it looks like AEP is getting into retrofitting plants to burn more efficiently, planting trees in faraway places and buying offsets. That last one does nothing for me, as it brings up memories of Al Gore's new mansion. I plan to read the whole report as soon as I can get my hands on a hard copy.

If you're interested in the news release only, go here.

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Something to think about when considering West Virginia's sales tax on food, and Ohio's lack of same:

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — This summer, Alabama and Mississippi are set to become the only states that apply their full state sales tax to groceries without any relief for low-income families, a distinction critics see as a holdover from their Deep South political past.

Arkansas had been in that category, but its Legislature recently voted to cut the state’s 6 percent sales tax in half for groceries. The tax break starts July 1.

All other states either exempt groceries from the sales tax, have a reduced tax on food, or provide a tax credit or rebate to low-income citizens.

West Virginia is gradually eliminating its sales tax on food. I myself don't like taxing something as basic to life as food. Part of me says it's not right to do that to our poorest residents. Then you ask yourself, if not for poor people, who would West Virginia have? We suffer from what I call the "Big Bottom." We have a greater percentage of people in the lower income brackets and a smaller percentage in the higher brackets.

But a sales tax on food still is just not right.

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Talk about voter apathy. According to The Dominion Post in Morgantown, via AP, all of 1.55 percent of the city's registered voters participated in Tuesday's city election. All told, only 215 of almost 14,000 registered voters bothered to cast ballots.

In voters' defense, no one on the ballot had competition, so really, only a few people had to vote.