Letters to the Editor: July 18, 2025

Stuck with bill

I watched the president talking about tariffs on TV.

He said the United States had collected somewhere in the neighborhood of $65 billion from his tariffs so far. He said this was money we had made from foreign countries sending goods to America.

In fact, these goods are first sold by foreign manufacturers and farmers to U.S. importers. The importers sell them to wholesalers, the wholesalers sell them to retailers and the retailers sell them to us, the consumers.

The tariff is paid by to the U.S. government by importers, not countries of manufacture. The importers pass the cost along to wholesalers and the wholesalers pass it along to retailers.

The retailers raise the cost of goods by the amount of the tariff and charge the consumer for it. At some point in the process, the importers, wholesalers and retailers have all had to pay that tariff, and all of them have recovered the cost by passing it on to the next in line in the supply chain.

The consumers are the unfortunate ones who get stuck holding the bag, or in this case paying the tariff. When the president proudly announces taking in $65 billion, remember you were the ones who picked up the tab.

Fred Fawcett

Lafayette

Hold the line

The article titled Vanishing Act in our great local paper was good to see as it brings a big problem to light for McMinnville and Oregon.

Do you remember when HP left town? It changed many things, devaluing our local real estate market hard and reducing sales in many if not most stores around town.

People and companies come to our town for what it has, not what it could be changed to have. So let’s keep Third Street close to what it’s like now, not try to reinvent ourselves.

The proposed innovation center is not in our best interest. The county already has an innovation center in Newberg.

The concept of innovation centers is a bit old school. There are much better ways to foster what we need in our area.

How about improving on our trade schools and our support for access to online trade training? The Chamber of Commerce should step up and bring in speakers, hold seminars and stage trade shows that support what our emerging and existing business community needs.

There are many venues in our area that have good small-to-medium event spaces to rent. This is a much better use of public funding and should be mostly self-funding.

As to changing the state’s spending spree, Representative Elmer is working hard on this. If you have time to volunteer, thus help her help us, call or e-mail.

I’m confused by our mayor and city council. They have made a few moves toward managing the budget mess, but seem to now be headed back to letting staff run with limited to no real oversight.

Several of our elected city officials have told me they are not experts, and have to rely on staff, as an excuse for not asking the hard budget questions. Huh? I thought asking the hard questions and building improved accountability was what some of them campaigned on.

Balancing the budget will mean some projects need to be cut. It’s a normal part of business to reduce spending on projects and employees when income and profits drop.

If you keep adding fees and taxes on top of each other, people and companies leave.

Manage a reasonable budget. You can’t take care of everyone.

Steve Caldwell

McMinnville