Carol Rhodes writes that a 23-cent boost is too large, and nothing should go to a Camden-Trenton line.
To the Editor:
I hope taxpayers will ask questions about New Jersey's proposed gasoline tax increase, now projected at 23 cents per gallon, before it's enacted.
Advocates of the hike would like you to believe the revenue will be dedicated mainly to improving our bridges and roads, but state Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-Gloucester, wants to build a Glassboro-Camden light-rail line that could get funding from new gas-tax revenue.
Estimates say this line could cost $1.6 billion, or roughly $100 million per mile, to build. Sweeney probably wants us to forget that the light-rail River LINE between Camden and Trenton, a prototype for the Camden-Glassboro link, came in at almost twice its original budget.
How about a dose of reality? How many people do you know who see Camden as a destination point? Our buck doesn't stop with the capital costs. If the Glassboro-Camden line is built, we'll be stuck subsidizing the fare of every rider. River LINE ridership started out at barely half of what was projected.
Sweeney is the lucky recipient of two paychecks: one from taxpayers and another as an ironworkers' union executive. So, by calling for personal vehicle drivers to pick up the rail-line tab, he's working for the ironworkers at our expense. As part of legislative leadership, Sweeney enjoys the luxury of a taxpayer-funded car and driver. So, he's not opening his wallet to pay for gas to get to and from work.
There's no good reason our gas tax has to be raised 23 cents. Let's start with a nickel and confine the money to improving existing infrastructure. Tell Sweeney we're not picking up the tab for his gravy train.
Carol Rhodes
Barnsboro
Teach kids police-stop rights, but add civics
To the Editor:
I concur with Bob Witanek's recent op-ed reply to an editorial ("Rights group never said 'clam up' if confronted by cops") that the South Jersey Times should press the state education commissioner to add a mandated "rights awareness" course to public school curriculum.
I like the ideas that Witanek, who chairs the group "Decarcerate the Garden State,"proffered on having civil liberties' experts, professional educators and defense attorneys coming together to structure courses with scenarios and discussions.
Some states require civics for graduation. I would like to expand Witanek's proposal and conflate it with a mandatory civics course. There was a 2015 Cal Thomas column in the Washington Times about how poorly our kids today understand civics. We think we know a lot about our rights, but we know nothing about our country and the principles that our liberty is based on.
Our civil order was based on what George Washington called the "twin pillars" of faith and morality. I admit unapologetically to being patriotic and a constitutionalist. To preserve liberty and our form of government, I think it depends on good citizens discharging their duties and obligations. It seems that grievance, rather than responsibility, is the main means of elevation. Today, there's too much focus on our rights, wants and what we are owed, and not enough on our obligations and duties.
Without proper moral and civic education, a republican form of government will falter. We develop through education our strengths as a free and responsible people.
Jack Sheidell
Turnersville
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