No amount is ever enough for DOT

I have to admit it was with little surprise I read the Jan. 24 article “Gas tax won’t be enough to keep promises.” What a shock! Gas tax money, even with the recent increases, will never be enough for the Department of Transportation? That has been the story since the tax was first initiated for transportation projects. The DOT can never get enough money.

Some may recall when the gas tax was first initiated many years ago. It was to be an inflation-proof method of collecting money for new roads, bridges and whatever else they wanted to spend it on. As the need increased, more gas would be sold and more money would be collected. As more miles were driven, more gas would be sold and more money would be collected. What has happened instead? The DOT has wasted billions on projects with no accountability. Remember when they refused to be audited — and nobody did a thing about it? Remember the continuing improvement to I-5 at Olympia which took place for over 25 years? (This is probably the finest stretch of freeway in the state, if not the world.) Remember when the DOT finally stopped “improving” that highway and moved around to Highway 101 to continue wasting our tax money?

The gas tax will never be enough as long as we allow the DOT to waste our tax money on high salaries and unneeded projects and it will never be enough to fill the “pork barrel” projects of our elected officials.

No matter how much gas tax money the DOT can squeeze out of the public, it will never be enough.

Jim Brauch