In response to the Blade editorial, “Both parties fail on transgender sports,” Friday, I don’t believe that both parties failed. One is about discrimination and the other is about being inclusive.
The science is still not conclusive. There isn’t data showing that trans women are better at women’s sports than biological women. If that were the case then we would see trans women winning all the time, and that doesn’t happen. The rules for trans women to compete are extensive so the idea that a man would wear a wig to win NIL money is ridiculous and ignores reality. Besides why would a man want to earn less in NIL money to play a woman’s sport?
I remember when children with HIV were banned from attending school because people wrongly assumed that HIV was contagious. We need to stop making these same mistakes. We need laws and policies based on data and not biases, religious indoctrination, or tabloid anecdotes.
DOUGLAS BERGER
President, Secular Humanists of Western Lake Erie
Toledo
Property tax valuation surges
Like many in Lucas County I was surprised and shocked when I got my notice of a 55 percent increase in my property tax valuation, along with the notice that three public meetings were to be held to discuss the changes, the last of which was to be held in Sylvania city the very day I received the mailed notice.
I arrived at the already started meeting in poor humor and met with a county representative who warned me there wasn’t much hope, but I could send an informal letter of appeal for review.
I said that I had appealed previous increases with some success; he told me that this increase would probably not be revised but that they would respond to my appeal by the end of November.
I sent my letter showing the increase was not supported by recent actual neighborhood sales, along with additional mitigating information.
Instead of responding by late November I received a letter in early January flatly rejecting my request. A couple of days later I received my tax bill, increased by 54.5 percent from last year.
This whole mess smells like bad fish. I recommend every taxpayer with any complaint to begin their official appeal process now. If reasonable adjustments aren’t made I recommend we throw the rascals out. Let’s ask ourselves who benefits from this scam.
MICHAEL TAYLOR
Sylvania Township
Halt roundabouts, WHY NOT?
Budget deficits are forecasted for both the city and the county. WHY NOT put a moratorium on roundabouts? WHY NOT cancel the funding earmarked for St. Anthony’s Church proposed rec center?
WHY NOT cancel the solar lighting for the grain silos?
WHY NOT have our politicians take an aggressive approach to spending cuts now rather than just taking money from the rainy day fund or hoping things just work out.
WHY NOT market to the Los Angeles area that we have facilities and buildings available for immediate occupancy?
The Jefferson Center, Arrowhead Park, vacancies in downtown Toledo, and spec buildings in the area are all ready to accommodate businesses ready to move to an area that has lower taxes, affordable housing, abundant water supply, and no fear of forest fires.
WHY NOT seems like a worthy task for Welcome-Toledo?
TOM OESS
Monclova Township
Transparency lacking in auditor’s office
The Lucas County Commissioners know the easiest way to increase tax revenues without a levy or new legislation is to artificially increase the value of our properties.
Their scheme to steal our money has been laid bare by the incompetence of the county auditor with her new arbitrary process for property valuation.
The auditor’s list of 346 properties that were valued incorrectly is only the small tip of a very large iceberg of properties with errors, based on the properties grossly overvalued in my neighborhood alone.
The county should stop the implementation of the recent property valuations until such time as all valuations have been reviewed and corrected by a competent party. Meanwhile, homeowners should only be required to pay the tax amounts from the previous billing period.
The county should commit to crediting or refunding tax overages paid prior to any valuation corrections. Furthermore, the auditor’s office should be transparent regarding the algorithm or process used to create these nonsensical evaluations.
KEVIN WEBB
Sylvania
First Published January 21, 2025, 5:00 a.m.
