Last week I called Rep. Aaron Reardon and Sen. Jeri Costa’s office to express my opposition to using $1 million and 400 officers to advertise and emphasize the new redundant seat belt law. Our governor tells us we don’t have money for roads, teachers, parks, nurses, firefighters, police, janitors or state administrators, but we can waste $1 million for advertising.
My calls were returned by assistants. Both actually sounded relieved that this wasted money was not state money, but a federal grant that we had to spend (waste) or some other state would get the money. Wasting federal tax dollars and not my state tax dollars should make me feel better? Wrong! I find it unconscionable that waste is perceived as acceptable by our state legislators when they are using someone else’s money. Money that comes from you and I, the taxpayer.
State legislators are asking for more in gas taxes for roads, yet they can’t tell us where past road tax monies have gone. And didn’t they tell us that the Lotto would bring a huge infusion of dollars for education, when in fact, monies really went into the general fund and were used for everything else but schools?
The finale of expressing my concerns over wasted tax dollars came when one of the two assistants suggested strongly that if I didn’t like the way the state was being run, maybe I should move elsewhere. She must have talked to Boeing.
Everett
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