Letters: A bankrupt idea for taxpayer money Re "Who lost Stockton?," Editorial, June 28 The Times gets it mostly correct, stating that running a city "requires skill, experience and a sense of duty." Its assertion that this "involves the very business-like practice of taking risks with other people's money" is off the mark, however. The comment also applies to state and federal governments. Ever optimists, we assume that the requisite skills and experience are present to address the issues when, in fact, such an expectation is not realistic. We ask legislators to be experts in everything, don't hold them accountable for the results and make it worse by allowing them to take risks with our money. Although The Times approves of the risk-taking, it acknowledges that running a city requires "a pretty good spate of luck." I have no interest in having my tax dollars confiscated and hoping my luck holds. "Sorry, not my fault" is not acceptable. Scott Perley Irvine