Letters to the Editor: Deer delusion
Laurel
Deer delusion
I really had to laugh at the front page article concerning losing the war against deer (Aug. 27). I’m a full-time resident of Laurel and I walk Peconic Bay Boulevard daily. I walk with a neighbor and we have the same conversation every day: Where are these herds of deer we are hearing about? I haven’t seen a deer in six months. No sighting of a massive deer problem.
During the last administration deer were talked about as pest control. The town also advertises a nuisance program where if you have deer on your property, call a dedicated number and they will send out a hunter to take care of the problem. What you never hear is how beautiful and majestic deer are and they make Southold very special.
The truth of the matter is we don’t have a deer problem. Over the past 10 years I see fewer and fewer deer. There is a campaign that has been going on for about 10 years in Southold to cull the deer population to a bare minimum.
To dedicate a front page of The Suffolk Times stating Southold is losing the war against deer is like saying horse and buggies are backing up beach traffic on the weekends. Humans are carving out large tracts of land in Southold, making it harder for all wildlife to hide and survive. When I walk on Peconic Bay Boulevard the amount of cars flying by at 50 miles an hour contributes to animals being killed.
The North Fork is a wonderful place to live, and the deer add to its beauty. If you do have herds of deer on your property, they were probably there before you moved in. Maybe you should consider moving to Peconic Bay Boulevard, where you might run into a few bunny rabbits and lanternflies — but no deer!
Ron Coons
Wading River
Out of context
In his letter “Facts vs. feelings” (Sept. 3) Mr. Bittner cites many facts without context. Yes, his facts are all correct. But citing facts out of context is almost always a symptom of a weak argument to start with.
So let’s add a few more facts: Inflation during Biden’s term began to go up a month after he took office, primarily due to the fact that we were in the midst of a global pandemic — which, incidentally, his predecessor (guess who?) completely mismanaged. An increase in inflation of this magnitude does not occur overnight. It was the culmination of the failed measures (or lack of measures) the first Trump administration took to deal with the pandemic.
It took over a year for Biden to deal with the Washington bureaucracy and deliver meaningful relief and bring inflation back to tolerable levels. While I am not a huge fan of President Biden, in this case he was not the cause of the high inflation; but he was the one that tamed it.
Mr. Bittner then goes on to credit the current administration for lowering taxes in the form of tax-free tips and overtime, plus the higher SALT deduction. Tax-free tips and overtime affect a very small percentage of the population. And those not eligible are asking why they get special treatment just because some of their income is in that form? Based on averages from government websites, the average taxpayer claiming both (which is unlikely) would save a few hundred dollars.
And we all seem to have a very short memory regarding the SALT deduction: It was Mr. Trump who took it away in the first place, during his first term, with his cronies in Congress proudly exhorting, “Why should we give tax breaks to blue states?” If it were not for our local representatives standing firm, Democrat and Republican alike, the SALT deduction would still be gone.
Tom Wallace
Wading River
Magical thinking
Last week’s letter writer from Cutchogue used statistics to contend that Trump’s economic policies were far better than Biden’s. But relying on numbers without context is misleading.
The writer compared Biden’s first 19 months in office, citing inflation at 8.75%, to Trump’s first 19 months, claiming an inflation rate of 3.5% “and falling.”
Context: In Biden’s first years as president, he faced a U.S. economy reeling from the unprecedented COVID shutdown. As the world started its recovery, the U.S. faced major shortages of hundreds of commodities. The image of dozens of container ships waiting months off West Coast ports to unload their cargo was very real.
Likewise, gasoline prices were low when Biden took office because few of us were driving anywhere. When the COVID recovery began, the oil industry increased fuel prices as they ramped up production to recover their losses. All this unavoidably triggered higher inflation.
When Trump began his second presidential term in January 2024, he was handed a thriving economy with inflation at about 3%. In the last 19 months, Trump’s chaotic tariff policies and his war-of-choice against Iran have spiked fuel, food and commodity prices to a current inflation rate of 3.4%. And it is expected to rise, not fall.
Our letter writer also tells us that, under Trump, federal tax rates have been lowered and the SALT deduction threshold has been raised.
Context: The provisions in Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill for no tax on tips, certain overtime work and tax breaks for seniors will expire in 2028. The bigger tax breaks for businesses and high earners won’t. And remember that it actually was Trump who capped the SALT deduction at $10,000 in his first term. The new SALT cap of $40,000 came about through across-the-aisle hard action by members of the House of Representatives. And this new cap expires in 2030.
The letter writer assures us that all will get better under Trump’s economic policies if we only “stay the course.” This is magical thinking that Americans can’t afford.
Martin Skrocki
Peconic
SALT exposed
I’m writing to explain what’s wrong with the SALT tax deduction that Nick LaLota talks about on his website and in his TV ads.
“SALT” stands for “State and Local Tax” deduction. It is particularly important in New York because we have relatively high property and state income taxes.
SALT is not a check or a tax credit that you apply for. It is a deduction on your federal income tax return. It allows you to deduct certain New York State and local taxes from your federal taxable income including: New York State and local income taxes, property taxes on your home and certain other state/local taxes.
The big change Nick LaLota has been talking about is that the federal SALT deduction limit was raised substantially. For 2026, the limit is $40,400 for most individual filers, rather than the old $10,000 limit.
How do you “get” it? You don’t sign up for it separately. You claim it when you file your federal tax return, using Schedule A (itemized deductions). The important catch is that you generally have to itemize your federal deductions. If you take the standard deduction instead, you don’t separately get the SALT deduction. The IRS confirms that SALT is an itemized deduction.
For example, suppose you paid: $12,000 in N..Y State/local income taxes and $10,000 in property taxes. That’s $22,000 of potentially deductible SALT. If you itemize, that $22,000 can reduce the income on which your federal tax is calculated, subject to the SALT rules and income limitations. It does not mean you get $22,000 back. If you’re in, say, a 22% federal tax bracket, a $22,000 deduction could reduce your federal tax by roughly $4,840.
There is one very important question for you. Since you’re in Southold/Long Island, you could potentially benefit quite a bit from the higher SALT limit, but whether it actually helps you depends on whether itemizing beats your standard deduction — which is $16,000 for single tax filers and $32,000 for those married and filing jointly. In 2017, it was $6,350 for single and $12,500 for married. Then it went up to $12,000 for single and $24,000 for married.
Now the standard deduction is so high that the average working-class person cannot use the itemized form, and therefore does not qualify for the SALT deduction that LaLota continually praises.
Joel Reitman
Southold
Distorted statistics
This letter is written in response to Bob Bittner’s letter “Facts vs. feelings.” In my statistics course at St. John’s University, we were required to read and subsequently analyze the specifics in a book entitled “How to Lie with Statistics”. I think Mr. Bittner has erred in his statistical analysis concerning inflation rates.
Per Investopedia, the average Inflation rate under Biden’s term (2021-25) was 4.95%. The spike, 8% occurred in 2022, with heavy fiscal spending to combat the effects of the pandemic that occurred during Trump’s first term. By the end of Biden’s term, 2025, inflation had fallen to 3%. Whereas, the average annual US inflation rate during Trump’s second term (2025-26) is 3.36%. While the cost of gasoline and home heating oil continue to rise.
As you can see, the average Inflation rate under Trump has risen from 3% to 3.36%. And, please remember that Trump promised to bring prices down fast during his last campaign in 2024. Instead, prices for most goods and services have continued to rise. The root causes of the persistent rises in prices are largely attributable to Trump’s tariffs and his war of choice in Iran.
We are all feeling the pain of Trump’s failed policies every time we go to the gas station and every time we go to the grocery store. Before we know it, cold weather will return and we will bear the brunt of the high cost of heating our homes.
Lastly, it was the Federal Reserve (under Paul Volcker) that tamed inflation in the 1970s with high interest rates. Trump continues to rant and rave about lower interest rates. Trump’s policies are contrary sound economic policy.
Dick Sheehan
Cutchogue
Looking back … and forward
It was a most beautiful September morning. It was a day of unimaginable horror. It was a day of heroic effort. It was a day when the world stopped turning. It was 25 years ago and yet this day remains vivid in our mind.
It was a day when a small band of Americans fought back on a hijacked plane and gave their lives for a cause greater then their own. Where first responders worked with all their being to save lives — and many lost their own.
The days that followed brought us all together. The country stood firm with resolve. It must have felt like that after the attack at Pearl Harbor. We, however, had no country to blame, only individuals with a warped sense of life.
Here we now are, 25 years passed and the country is split down the middle. But at least on this day we agree. Respect for those who perished and gratitude for those who gave their lives so others might live fills the morning air.
Maybe, just maybe, we can regain that feeling of togetherness. Maybe, we can start anew on this Friday, Sept. 11, with 25 years passed.
Bob Bittner
Cutchogue
The score card
Here’s a brief score card for our current national government. On a local level, our representative, Nick LaLota, is apparently on board with it and obviously believes a $40 trillion national debt just isn’t a serious problem. That’s $117,647 for each man, woman and child in the U.S. Do you wonder why he won’t hold a Town Hall meeting?
- No more wars. Score: 0
- Russia/Ukraine war to end on Day One: 0
- Bringing down inflation on food, etc.: 0
- Bringing down gas prices to $2: 0
- Deporting the “worst of the worst.”: 1 (Minus 70% of deportees who are without any criminal history, coupled with a few dead U. S. citizens at the hands of ICE)
- Imposing tariffs to make America rich: 0
- Growing the economy: 0 (But $1 trillion tax cut for billionaires)
- Improving international relationships: 0 (America is now the butt of jokes worldwide and its word is no longer trusted by anyone on the planet.)
- Trump, family and friends getting rich off the presidency while everyone else goes backward: 100
Unless and until we have public financing of political races — no more money raised from rich people or corporations— coupled with term limits, the above score card is what our government will continue to look like.
Michael Levy
