Prop. 13 Halted Onerous Tax Increases

The editorial ``The Orange Goes Sour,'' Dec. 13, which makes reference to the passage of Proposition 13, needs some clarification.

As a longtime property owner and taxpayer in California, I had seen property taxes rise at an alarming rate between 1940 and 1980. We built a small house in the 1970s. I saw my taxes rise six times in one year, and the tax assessor told me that I would eventually have to pay the equivalent of the cost of my house in taxes each year.

I wondered if I would have to eventually sell my home that I had planned to live in the rest of my life.

Then came Proposition 13. It was passed by an overwhelming majority of voters, to put a stop to the tax-and-spend policies of the government. The recent rejection of the tax-and-spend crowd shows the public is fed up with big government trying to put citizens who have worked and those who have depended on government handouts on a level playing fileld. Don Soule, Carmel Valley, Calif. Environmentalism exposed

The article ``A Sound Method for Forecasting Hurricanes,'' Dec. 12, was truly a breath of fresh air. It is good to see the tactics and motives of environmental groups like Greenpeace revealed, as the author puts it, as ``scare-mongering'' and ``propaganda.''

Since technology is probably the single most important reason for the rise in the standard of living over the last century, exposing the excesses of environmentalism is of vital importance to people around the world. Without more accurate reports like the author's, people may not realize their lower standards of living are the result of regulations based on junk science and laws ignoring human beings. Matthew B. Hulen, Arlington, Texas