Letter: Murphy lost sight of common man

To the Editor:

This is in response to the article Feb. 19 on Sen. Steve Murphy asking for a gas tax increase to pay for roads.

It is easy to ask for a gas tax increase when taxpayers pay for part of your gas. With $96 per diem from the taxpayer for food and the mileage you also get paid you can easily pay for a tax increase why not? But how about instead using some of the money going to the underused and overfunded light rail, you use it to cover some of the roadwork that needs to be done.

In a state that ranks one of the highest in taxes it is time for are elected officials to start using the money the right way instead of asking for more money to miss manage.

It was stupid to put a ceiling on how much could go to roads and a floor on how much had to go to light rail in the last transportation bill. Now Murphy and his pals in St. Paul are asking for more money.

Hey, senator, here’s a good idea: How about most of the money going to the mode of transportation used the most; any left over can go to light rail, which is used by a small percentage of people? Or how about cutting subsidies for ethanol, which is raising the cost of everything and solving nothing, with its use of tons of water and energy to make? Or how about cutting some of the other spending you and your pals attach to every bill that comes through?

All of this because a bridge collapsed in our state. We don’t even know what caused it. It could have been the extra weight from the construction crew for all we know and until the investigation is over I don’t think we should be jumping to conclusions.

Senator, if it is so hard to manage the money the people that elected you are paying then let someone that can take over.

Jason Nurnberg

Mazeppa

Tags: opinion, letter, jason, nurnberg, steve, murphy