Letter to the editor: Paying for police, roads & bridges

The editorial “Gas tax covers police for areas that won’t” (April 26, TribLIVE) included great comments about the current situation in Pennsylvania.

I have a solution: If your municipality doesn’t have a police force, it should fix roads and bridges without state help.

Great and wonderful Hempfield Township is one that doesn’t pay for police coverage and sponges off the rest of us. How much gas tax money is going to Hempfield to fix roads and bridges? It should stop immediately.

Gov. Tom Wolf proposed a per capita assessment that was shouted down by cries that “We can’t afford it,” especially in Hempfield Township.

I live in South Greensburg, home to just over 2,000 people, and we have a police department. Our borough owns up to its responsibilities and provides first-class services to its residents.

It’s time that “second class” Hempfield Township and others step up and provide first-class services like police protection or pay for their own bridge and road repairs.

And the rest of the municipalities need to go after Wolf and the Legislature to take appropriate action.

John A. Waite

South Greensburg