There were two items in the March 13 Trib that caught my attention.
First was the front-page story about our illustrious governor saying that he wants to further increase our taxes (”Gov. Wolf seeks to phase out Pennsylvania’s gas tax,” March 12, TribLIVE). No news here, folks — that is the only plan that he has ever had! As I see it, there are a few key points in this story. Since 2007 nearly $7,000,000,000.00 (even for a government program that is a lot of zeros) has been siphoned off from turnpike tolls to fund programs that have nothing to do with the Pennsylvania Turnpike. While we pay the second highest gas tax in the U.S., it is still never enough.
Could the fact that, as Rep. Mike Carroll, D-Luzerne, of the House Transportation Committee, said, “Nearly half of the gasoline tax that we collect does not go to PennDOT’s responsibility with respect to roads and bridges”? If this money went where it was supposed to go and PennDOT was a good steward of its more than adequate budget, there would be no problem.
Second, I totally agree with the comments of letter-writer Tony Pittore (“Wolf should reduce spending, not hike taxes,” March 13, TribLIVE): “Here’s a wild idea: Don’t increase our income taxes, and instead reduce government spending, Blasphemy.”
I don’t know about you, but I think it’s time for a change in how our government is run, and there is a bottom to the well that they keep trying to pump dry.
Kenneth R. Nath
Saltsburg