Letters: Fair corporate taxes could bail out cities like Oakland

"Just like every other city in California, Oakland desperately needs new revenue sources. California cities don't even have enough money to fund the bare minimum of public services, with essential services like BART shutting down frequently. This is a problem that has gone back decades, ever since 1978, when Proposition 13 passed, and has since robbed hundreds of billions of dollars from our communities."

"Americans should recoil in horror at Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth's expressed skepticism of adhering to the Geneva Conventions and their rules of engagement. These are not abstract foreign mandates. The United States helped write them after World War II, ratified them and wove them into the very fabric of our military doctrine. They are a proud expression of our belief that even in war, humanity must not be abandoned."

Oakland lacks adequate revenue to fund essential public services, with systems like BART shutting down frequently. Proposition 13, passed in 1978, severely capped property tax levels and diverted hundreds of billions of dollars from communities, forcing reliance on regressive sales taxes that are nearly maxed out. Taxing corporations that extract billions could fund necessary services. The United States helped write and ratify the Geneva Conventions after World War II and incorporated them into military doctrine to ensure humane conduct in war. Abandoning those rules would betray moral law, erode civilian protections and humane prisoner treatment, and risk turning soldiers into instruments of cruelty.

Read at www.mercurynews.com