BCT Editorial – 7/5/08

This page was last updated on July 6, 2008.

Grow up; Editorial; Beaver County Times; July 5, 2008.

The editorial subtitle is “Proposal to cut drink tax ignores the need to fund mass transit.”

The editorial completely ducks the point that people who consume poured alcohol drinks (Today alcohol, tomorrow pop?) and car renters have no responsibility (ethical, legal, logical, moral, etc.) to subsidize even further people who ride on government-run, taxpayer-funded transit monopolies.

I tend to oppose government “businesses,” but if they are going to exist, fare-paying customers must fund them, not taxpayers. When government-run transit monopolies can’t function solely on revenue from the fare box, they need to be shut down.

I’m not picking on so-called mass transit. Where practical, I also support tolls on bridges and limited access highways, as long as the tolls are used only for the specific bridge/highway on which the tolls were collected.

I often wonder how much smaller government would be (including lower taxes) and how much smoother it would run if we’d simply pay our own way and get our hand out of the next guy’s pocket.

Even the Times recognizes it advocates a weak position. Otherwise, why would the editorial get into name-calling (“spoiled children”) in the last sentence and not want voters anywhere near a referendum?