Let’s fix the spending first

To the editor:

I guess it’s human nature — no one likes to admit it when they made a poor choice. But it should be fairly obvious, even to the oblivious, that we got it wrong. Any time a state pays more out to have someone look for a nonrenewable resource (production credits) than that state can collect (production tax) once the resource is exploited by that company or another, something is wrong.

Maybe someone smarter than me could try to fix that. Everybody has a pet project they would like someone else to pay for: a bridge, a dam, a port, a harbor, some artwork, the road down the street, a rail spur. Oh, or can I interest you in a ferry? It’s one of a kind. I’m sure you will love it.

While all these projects are dandies, I’m sure, we are going broke! I, for one, just don’t want an income tax, more money for us to find a place to spend it, or pay down debt.

But what about my project? Who will collect these taxes? How many branch offices would be required?

Let’s see, there is Sitka, Ketchikan, Juneau, Cordova, Valdez, Glennallen, Tok, Palmer, Anchorage, Seward, Kenai, Homer, Fairbanks and too many rural villages to name. We all would have to pay right? So we have offices, office staff, office supplies, and we need an overpaid director to oversee all this.

Who will enforce it? Who will enforce it on non-residents? Will there be any money left after we pay for all this? Not much I bet. Oh, we’ll just raise their rates.

What? It may not work, you say? OK, if it doesn’t, just give them a state sales tax. After all, Wasilla and Palmer have been pretty successful with those.

We haven’t stopped the hemorrhage, so we need more. It will always be more, more, more. Unless we stop the spending, there will never be enough. Come on, we all have to do this at home.

We have elected the best and brightest to represent us. Let’s fix the spending first.

John Jones

Wasilla

Editor’s note: State officials and independent analysts agree that cuts alone cannot fill the budget gap currently facing the state.