TOLLS - Reader disagrees with guest editorial

In a recent guest editorial ("Making sure tolls are not a tax," CBH, October 6, 2011) Tim Eyman stated that raising taxes should only be "an absolute last resort." Eyman doesn't want to help pay for public roads and thinks that we should find other solutions.

Taxes and tolls for roads are not the last resort. Another option is to stop paving and repairing roads. Washington voters have opted for private wealth and public poverty. Washington drivers want expensive, gigantic V8, 4x4 trucks and SUVs, but they don't want to pay for paved and maintained roads. So, let's give people what they want and stop paving and repairing the roads. Why do we need paved roads anyway? Let's put those giant V8, 4x4 trucks and SUVs to good use! You should get what you pay for: since we don't want to pay for paved roads, we shouldn't have them.

Imagine how exciting it would be! You'd finally get to use four-wheel drive every day! All of those enormous V8, 4x4 Suburbans, Dakotas, Expeditions and Escalades would really be useful for a change. Driving over Snoqualmie Pass would be a real adventure if we stopped repairing it and clearing the snow each winter. What fun! And taxpayers would save so much money. I hope that Eyman finds this acceptable for it proves that there are non-tax alternatives.

Dennis Knepp

Moses Lake