Reduce tolls, don't divert the surpluses

Re: Roads rolling in tolls, Aug. 19.

As daily commuter between Palmetto and St. Petersburg, I found this informative article very disturbing. I assumed, probably like many other commuters, the roughly $360 annually I spendtraveling on the Sunshine Skyway bridge is for the bridge's cost of construction and continued maintenance. According to the article, tolls on the Skyway have created a surplus of money.

Logically, I would think the toll rate would be decreased. Instead, State Senate Transportation Committee Chairman Jim Sebesta believes the surplus should be used to fix up roads and fund special projects that I will rarely, if ever, benefit from.

The use of surplus toll money is nothing more than an extra, or special, tax on Skyway bridge commuters. The maintenance of local and state roads are paid through taxes, and likely other sources, that should be evenly spread throughout the local and state tax bases. It is outrageous that certain toll roadway surpluses are used to fund special projects and routine local maintenance. This special taxation has really spiked my interest in the State Senate Transportation Committee and other politicians in favor of this policy.

I hope others affected by this targeted taxation will contact their representatives as I will.

Give toll-payers a break

Re: Roads rolling in tolls, Aug. 19.

My mouth dropped when I heard that the abundance of toll revenue will be diverted to fund other state road projects not as profitable or fortunate. Is that legal? I thought the idea of a revenue bond was to fund construction with the tolls of anticipated users. Since Sunshine Skyway travelers (and revenue) has far exceeded the 20-year-old funding projections, the "powers that be" want to spread the wealth around.

I am a commuter that spends $600-plus per year in "user fees." I am not a high-wage earner and the $600 in toll fees means that I make do with less to make the commute across the bridge each day. This toll-payer sure could use a break of reduced tolls.

I'll be sure to vote against those who made the decision. Can Florida have a recall too? Maybe we can get Arnold to come to Florida instead. Please be sure to publish the names of our public servants that engineered this decision.

We all pay taxes

It's wonderful Arnold Schwarzenegger has given a speech with specifics. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. He says Californians have been punished enough. "When they go get a cup of coffee, they're taxed. ... When they go to the gas station, they're taxed. When they go to lunch, they're taxed. This goes on all day long. Tax. Tax. Tax. Tax. Tax." (For the sake of purity, they are not actually taxed until they have received the services, not on the way to get them).

We have, at last count, 49 other states. Which of them do not have all the taxes mentioned above?

Profits and power

Regarding the blackout in the Northeast and the president's assertion that we need to investigate it, I wonder how he reconciles that with the fact that he and his administration were against the bill that was set up by U.S. Rep. Sam Farr of California to provide $350-million to modernize the power grid in the Northeast. It was voted down three separate times on straight party lines.

Furthermore, our patriotic corporate executives of our nation's power plants have been taking enormous profits. Their annual companies' proxy statements show their excessive increases in salaries, bonuses, retirement and stock options. This and their hand-picked compensation committees and compensation consultants have concerned them more than making improvements to the power grid.

There's no comparison

Re: New York shows its class, letter, Aug. 19.

It is truly unbelievable that the letter writer could compare the plight of the Iraqi people to the situation that many recently found themselves experiencing in New York and the rest of the Northeast and Canada - a lost weekend and the knowledge that the power will be back on soon.

What would happen if the blackout continued for seven months? The Iraqi people have had little or no food, minimal air conditioning in 120-degree temperatures, and no clean drinking water. And all this after being subjected to a bombing campaign designed to terrorize the citizens. How much compassion would be shown under such circumstances in New York, or anywhere for that matter?

A commendable drop in crime

Re: No money for colleges, but plenty for prisons, by Steve Bousquet, Aug. 16.

Mr. Bousquet actually believes that crime goes in the same direction as the prison population, that is, if crime rates decline, the prison population declines. The opposite is true. The increase in the prison population is reflected by a decrease in the crime rate. As thugs are taken off the streets, there are fewer criminals who are free to commit crimes.

Years ago, when Florida's prison system was unable to adequately house those newly convicted of a crime, the state had no choice but to prematurely release those already serving time. The result was a predictable surge in crime rates.

Mr. Bousquet seems to feel that most criminals are simply victims of a curable drug habit, and that all crime will magically vanish upon their rehabilitation. He ignores the factual recidivism rates Florida has experienced, about 50 percent. When one recidivist burglar, for example, is caught, much more than one crime is solved. There are all the unsolved burglaries that criminal committed in the past, and those he would have committed in the future.

Florida's 10-20-life laws have contributed to lower crime rates as criminals are kept in prison for longer terms. In addition, violent offenders who use a firearm face even stiffer penalties.

John Lott has shown in his published study, "More Guns, Less Crime," that the "right to carry" (concealed firearms) laws passed some 15 years ago has also discouraged criminal activity, and has contributed to Florida's declining crime rates. A criminal simply doesn't know which upstanding citizen is armed for self defense, and which isn't, and that serves as a genuine deterrent to criminal activity.

Jeb Bush and the Legislature are to be commended for their outstanding contributions to reduced crime, and should be encouraged to continue their course. Education spending, as Mr. Bousquet states, is up 4.5 percent, the budget is balanced, and crime is down. Sounds good to me.

Let them work for their wages

Re: Letters against the raising of the minimum wage, Aug. 21.

These letter writers don't seem to understand the facts of life. They, without a doubt, never had to worry where their next meal would come from. I suppose they would think a minimum wage of $1 an hour would be justifiable? How do you determine a person's hourly worth? I suppose the writers think executives are worth their million-dollar wages?

As the writers think a person is not worth more than the minimum wage, I guess it would be safe to assume these same people don't believe in giving to charities to help these people? We can thank God the majority of Americans do not think this way.

These writers would have you believe raising the minimum wage would hurt businesses. It hasn't yet. Here are the facts of life: We as a nation cannot sit by and let people starve to death. One way or another, our taxes are going to help these people on the bottom of the pay scale. So why not pay a decent wage and get them off the welfare programs? Make them work for their wages. Welfare programs have created a "Why should I work when I can get it free?" attitude.

If you want to help the economy, you do not cut the taxes of those on the top of the pay scale. You cut the taxes of those on the bottom. (The Republicans would have you think that the people on the bottom of the pay scale don't pay taxes. Everyone pays taxes.) Cut the taxes taken out of the workers' paychecks. That will get the economy rolling again. When the workers make money, they spend it, and businesses prosper. It's the "trickle up" effect that works, not "trickle down."

Fact: You can't spend if you don't have.

The life of a minimum wage earner

Re: Aug. 21 letters to the editor.

It is indeed distressing to see the letters to the editor opining against a minimum wage increase. I did not realize that the Tampa Bay area harbored such heartless people. Don't they know that some people, through no fault of their own, will spend their working lives at minimum wage jobs?

Let these letter writers look at a married couple working full-time at minimum wage jobs and see that they cannot afford the things we accept as the necessities of life: a reliable car, television, cable, cell phone, computer, etc. The minimum wage worker does not even let himself dream of the these things.

More credit for Eckerd faculty

The members of the Greater Tampa Bay Phi Beta Kappa Association join the Times in welcoming Eckerd College into the fold of the elite institutions of higher education that are authorized by the Phi Beta Kappa Society to shelter a chapter (Eckerd College joins Phi Beta Kappa ranks, Aug. 10 and Phi Beta Kappa award richly deserved, Aug. 16). The Greater Tampa Bay Association has been supporting the applications of faculty members from both Eckerd College and from the University of South Florida for some years.

While the Times' news stories are essentially correct, there is a subtle distinction that usually gets glossed over in the media even though it is important within the academy. The application to shelter a chapter is made by Phi Beta Kappa faculty members of the institution, not by the administration of the institution. Granted, the president and the trustees of the institution deserve credit for their achievements, but the Phi Beta Kappa members of Eckerd College, including Dean Lloyd Chapin, Mark Davis, Catherine Griggs and at least seven others deserve to be credited for their outstanding work. They will form the Phi Beta Kappa chapter that will induct their top students into the society.

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