ITD needs to live within its budget

With rising gas prices now at $3/gallon and forcasted to rise another 20 cents/gallon by January ITD is proposing a 7-10 percent increase in fuel taxes and a possible 50 percent increase in vehicle registration fees to cover needed repair and maintenance of state roads and bridges,

While roads and bridges are a vital necessity to our lives and economy and should be kept in good repair the state sales tax revenues increased by a whopping 85 percent this year causing a surplus of hundreds of millions of dollars in the general fund.

ITD however by law must fund highway/bridge maintenance and construction from fuel taxes and vehicle registrations. The general fund surpluses cant be touched so their solution is to raise taxes.

This is ridiclous. Government is a service entity not a "for profit" entity. It is criminal to even think of higher taxes when the state is flush with cash already extracted from citizens by other taxes. In fact there should be no surplus at all and it should be used to reduce our other taxes.

The solution is simple. The Legislature and governor can and should ammend the law to allow ITD access to the general fund to effect needed highway/bridge maintenance/construction. No new taxes!

If you agree with this please let your senators, representatives and the governor know.

PHIL POUTRE

Cocolalla