Gas tax repeal, Koch Bros as pretenders, Golden Age of Debt

Squandered taxes

Why am I supporting Proposition 6, the gas tax Repeal initiative (“GOP gov. candidate Cox was major donor of gas tax repeal,” News Ticker, July 13)?

It galls me that the state government has squandered the gas tax money they already collect. The lockbox that was supposed to be on the existing gas tax money lies broken on the side of the pot-holed ridden road of our corrupt state bureaucracy. In addition to that when money is spent on roads we don’t get any bang for our buck, almost every other state is over 2.5 times more efficient with the money. Why would I want to support more sloth and thievery? This tax hurts the average person much harder than it hurts the well heeled. If you have a wallet with a few hundred bucks in it the pain of 40 or 50 bucks worth of gas hurts a lot less than if that money spent means having to go with spaghetti again instead of shrimp. It’s insulting that the people who are always yapping about how they are always looking out for the little guy stuck this money sucking tax on the backs of all of us, it’s like a giant tick! Let’s get this tick off our backs!!

• Robert Minor
• Ocean Beach

Kochs’ new college try

The Koch Brothers are merely trying to legitimize their image by pretending to support liberal ideals (“Koch-funded college journalism arrives at SDSU,” News Ticker, September 20).

They are responsible for installing Trump and his radical right cabinet as well as the majority of far right Congress men and women, governors like Scott Walker and so many other hateful state politicians. Their horrific agenda includes more oil pipelines through the poorest neighborhoods causing higher rates of cancer and then fighting Medicare for All. They are the worst monsters ever to become oligarchs in the U.S. and they must be called out for their war against the common people’s welfare with their well-funded, racist agenda.

• Stephen Johnson
• San Diego

Debt’s golden age

The word debt attached to a sum of money is only valid if the entire sum is going to be repaid (“A curmudgeon’s view of debt,” City Lights, September 26).

Currently, country to country debt is consider to be repaid if the country in debt can meet the annually interest payment. The balance will never be repaid. So don’t withdraw currency from the economy with taxes but just issue more bonds. We are in the tenth year of the ‘Golden Age of Debt,” thus Detroit more then any other metropolitan area in the world is being labeled a ‘renaissance’ city because Detroit can’t afford to finance their school system and have the entire debt transferred to the state of Michigan.

• Robert Kachur
• Mission Hills