Letters

Infrastructure worries

I wonder if our representatives and senators in Washington, D.C. subscribe to the Gazette and other state newspapers. If so, I wonder if they read the editorials. They should, especially the last one about infrastructure you published in the May 30th issue. If our Congressional delegation does not get the paper, someone should clip that editorial and send it to them.

Your statement is absolutely correct. Our infrastructure, our bridges are aging and failing, and their replacement is a cost we have to face, but better sooner than eventually.

I thought Congress had a wake-up call when the Minneapolis bridge failed, but as you point out, now we’ve had more of them falling and dropping vehicles and people.

Bridge repair and replacement takes money. Guess where that needs to come from. Yep, from Americans. There is legislation like another stimulus that would provide funds for our bridges and other infrastructure, but some in Congress have blocked it. Those in Congress who oppose this kind of government spending now can look at the deplorable economic situation in Europe where their kind of fiscal policy of spending cuts was implemented. The United States instead did do stimulus and we are better off than Europe because of it. A second stimulus would help fix our bridges, employ people and make our economy even stronger, so we should get with it right away.

Finally, our state legislature also needs to pay attention to infrastructure and not keep taking away money for that from our counties. Whitman County has a lot of water crossings, and the County does a great job in bridge maintenance and inspections, but if the state does not budget money for bridge replacement, are we supposed to go back to fording the rivers and streams?

Mark Bordsen,

Colfax

Privatized liquor

It has been a year since Costco’s Initiative 1183 privatized the state liquor stores. Susan Fagan used the full influence of her legislative office to lobby us for passage of this drug pusher’s dream, this effort to increase the supply (the use and abuse) of the number one drug related to crimes of violence.

The Associated Press (“Liquor taxes, fees generate more money for Washington” M-P Daily News June 1&2, 2013) reports the results of Susan Fagan’s job performance.

Volume. Sales of liquor now average 2.7 million liters a month, vs. 2.5 million. Yay! Score one for the drug pushers. Too bad about the effects of that alcohol in your families and neighborhoods. Washingtonians, Susan Fagan doesn’t care about you.

1,400 retailers vs. only 329 state liquor stores. Yay! Way to go, drug dealers. Nice move there, by Susan Fagan. Suck it up, families.

The Almighty Dollar. In March, the prices were 7 percent higher than a year earlier. As we have seen with cigarettes, the higher the taxes, the more profit incentive for the black market merchants. So...”Some chiefs and sheriffs have noted an increase in shoplifting related to spirits,” said Mitch Barker, executive director of the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs. “There’s no question organized crime is involved,” he said. “Groups are taking large amounts and selling it on the black market.”

Yay! Druggies and gangsters, you’ve suborned our servant, Susan Fagan, to work against us on your behalf. How’d you do that? Right out in public.

Why is she still in office?

Wiley Hollingsworth,

Pullman