LETTERS: ROAD TOLLS ARE LITTLE MORE THAN TAXES

To the editor:

I am writing this letter from the viewpoint of a lifetime resident of Missouri, a product of the Missouri University system, a former Army lieutenant who served in Korea and Germany and as a combat troop leader in Desert Storm. In 1993 I returned to Missouri as a civilian and began a career as a salesman for a small company in Springfield. In the past five years, I have drive over 250,000 miles and visited literally thousands of homes and businesses along the way. I have family and friends in very part of the state and every part of the world.

I have found it the best policy in all my travels and in all my dealings with others to live by two simple guidelines: Use common sense at all times, and do unto others as you would have them do unto you. In my opinion, any other rules to live by, be it in business, service, artistry, athletics or love, flow from these two guidelines.

I am a proud American, a 31-year-old patriot who feels comfortable in any group at any event, face to face with any person. I am a Libertarian Party member who believes in freedom. That is, freedom to think, speak and act as I will, so long as I do not interfere with the freedom of others to do likewise.

I have been voraciously consuming your Opinion page on a daily basis since moving here in 1995. I have enjoyed the debates that clamor for our partisanship and attention. I enjoy the articulate calls for action, the admonishments to the heathens, the name-calling reactions, the general gripes. I admire those who have the courage to sign their names to their comments, whether I agree with them or not.

Finally, I have seen an editorial that compels me to respond. In the Aug. 13 edition, the editorial is, in my opinion, a well-crafted sales pitch for the introduction of toll roads on Missouri highways. I call on the editorial board, specifically Peter Kinder, an openly conservative state legislator, and Gary Rust, an openly conservative and successful businessman, to juxtapose this view with their past denunciations of taxes in general and specifically their offhand dismissal of a tobacco tax as a tax on the poor.

Make no mistake, a toll-road system in Missouri would be good theory put into practice: Users pay their own way. However, until each and every tax that currently funds those same highways is eliminated, then a toll-road system becomes just another tax. That is the reality where, literally, the rubber meets the road. As a person who works and drives among fellow Missourians every day and in every corner of the state, I can attest to the fact that this would hit us all hard in the wallets and pocketbooks. I average 50,000 miles a year, paying gas taxes and property taxes on my vehicle every mile of it.

Imagine how a toll-road tax would affect each of us. Those of us who live close to Kansas City and St. Louis would pay a toll going to and from work. State legislators, already cash-strapped if you listened to their calls for more per-diem pay in the recent past, would pay when driving to Jefferson City. Or would the find a way to exempt themselves? Would a state trooper, like my uncle in Macon, be made to pay a toll while patrolling? I should hope not, for obvious practical reasons, though in truth his patrol cars do more time (wear and tear) on the highways that the farmer from Kennett who takes his family to see Mark McGwire swat homes runs once in a lifetime, and they would have to pay a toll to get to the stadium.

I believe that we do not need another tax. I say that I don't mind paying a use tax if it is used for a necessary purpose and applied in a fiscally conservative manner. I want the end result to be efficiency and increased benefits to all involved, and I want the ones responsible for its implementation to be held accountable for their results. Sadly, I have been around enough government bureaucracy to know that this is not the current reality.

In conclusion, I would prefer to see the editorial staff call for elimination of existing taxes and more prudent use of government resources before advocating -- aw, heck, openly shilling for -- new taxes.

TIMOTHY J. DOUBLEDEE

Jackson