Consider alternative plans to fix roads

To the editor:

Erin Murphy's article in the Feb. 19 Gazette, 'Report: Drivers pay high price for crumbling roads” quotes Carolyn Bonifas Kelly of TRIP as stating, 'The reality is there's simply not enough transportation funding to meet all the needs of (Iowa's) transportation system.” Of course tied into this article is another mention of the 10 cent per gallon tax hike at the gas pumps as a means to fix our transportation woes.

It occurs to me to ask at what point do we say 'no more taxes”? Why has government put more infrastructure into place than current taxation is able to pay for? The course of government seems to be to constantly increase infrastructure without any clear idea of how they'll be able to pay for it down the road.

When a for-profit business finds itself in hard times, it doesn't whine to the shareholders to contribute to its mismanagement, it tightens its belt. Most individuals don't run their affairs by investing in things when they have no clear plan of how to pay for their purchases. When is government going to figure out they have to stop building roads, bridges and other infrastructure they can't maintain without imposing new burdens on the taxpayers? Yes, gas prices are low. If the new tax is put in place on gasoline and if (more likely when) gas goes up again, is our state government going to rescind this tax? Once a new tax has been imposed, when has government ever removed it?

Bernie Wingerter

Cedar Rapids