Cut wasteful programs, spending

To the editor:

To those who support the proposed 10 cent gas tax: If our state economy is as good as our political leaders would lead us to believe, why do we need 10 cent per gallon fuel tax legislation? The mere mention of it resulted in an immediate 10 cent hike at the pumps. This is gouging Iowa customers.

I'm doubtful the revenue will result in significant improvement in Iowa's roads and bridges. Gas prices have come down which provides a temporary window to push this additional tax. However, we know the price per gallon is due to a temporary situation and these prices will rise back to previous levels plus an additional dime per gallon.

As of 2013, the population of Iowa was 3.09 million. Take a look at the Iowa Department of Administrative Services database of State of Iowa employee salaries in The Des Moines Register. The list has 25 names per page and there are 22,518 pages. If you do the math, you can see that apparently 18 out of 100 people in Iowa work for state government in some capacity and, of course, draw a salary.

If Iowa can't maintain roads and bridges with the tax burden its citizens endure, we need to cut the wasteful programs and the glut of 562,950 government employees drawing salaries who appear to do little else than come up with new ways to spend Iowans' hard earned money with additional taxes and programs.

Gregory Overton

Johnston