From Russ Goldstein
Hutchinson
With gas back up to $3 per gallon, I want to thank State Rep. Ron Shimanski for his vote against raising the state's gas tax. Unfortunately the "tax-at-will" DFL-controlled legislature and a few RINOs (Republicans in name only) stymied Shimanski's vote by sending the 7-cents-per-gallon increase plus other fee increases to the governor. But thankfully the governor had the smarts to listen to the conservatives that got him elected and vetoed the unnecessary increased tax burden.

Now for those of you who are making the correlation of gas tax increase to road and bridge building and repair, I want to make it perfectly clear that I am in favor of the latter. The difference is that some people don't see the big picture — that being the overall state budget. They only want to focus on a gas tax and fee increases to generate the revenue to build and repair roads and bridges. I would like to have those people, especially the mayors, county commissioners and county engineers, refocus their lobbying efforts with our Legislature toward finding the money without raising taxes or fees. It can be done. If they don't think the state is bringing in enough money to make reasonable strides in road and bridge development, then I would like to sell them some oceanfront property in Cedar Mills.

We have government expenditures spiraling out of control. The state does not have a revenue problem — it has a spending problem. Once the Legislature gets a handle on all the wasteful spending and abuse, there will be plenty of money to dedicate toward roads. If the tax increase supporters need some help — here are just a few examples of waste and abuse:

< Corporate welfare created partly because taxes are too high. Lower taxes and some of the justification for this welfare will be eliminated.

< Individual welfare programs that act like magnets bringing low or no income people and illegal aliens into the state.

< Government employee retirement programs that start at an early age and make financial commitments that will put cities, counties and the state on the verge of bankruptcy.

< Welfare programs that are used just because they are there, even though the recipients can survive without them. Some government programs even encourage irresponsible behavior leading to continued and increased dependence. The family and church have become a distant second and third when compared to dependence on government financial support.

< And let us not forget the administration of all these wasteful programs. That's wasteful spending on top of wasteful spending.

< Also let's not forget the cost of transit which never pays for itself and continues to drain money that could be spent on roads.

Bottom line: The money is there. All you gas tax supporters stop lobbying the Legislature to raise taxes and instead start lobbying the legislature to cut out the wasteful spending and dedicate some of the savings to roads.