Columbia County Observer

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On April 10, 2014, Bubba Twelvepack wrote:

I was looking at the Observer right after I took me a big swig of Budweiser yesterday and damn if it didn't make me blow beer right out my nose and all over the keyboard when I seen this article about adding on 5 cents to the gas tax. I had to check the date and make sure that article wasn't posted on April 1, for some kind of April Fool's Day joke.

I'll tell you something else that ain't no joke. That's a mighty fine little graph ya'll published to explain how this is going to measure up to the rest of the state and the nation, but ya'll left something out. You need to put on there another bar with that graph, that shows the median income that goes with each region. Point I'm making is simple. We're one of the poorest counties in the state, but we got to pay more than anybody else, looks like, to drive.

On top of that a professor from the University of Florida said we drive more miles in this county than any other county in the state. He's probably a nice enough fella, but he left out the fact that means we're spending a higher proportion of our measly incomes on gas than anybody else in the state already.

I'll tell you what, any of my buddies had him a 'workshop' to take more money out of my pocket every time he went in there, that place would get leveled pretty quick, but unfortunately ain't a backhoe around could take down one of these conceptual workshops our elected representatives like to have. Once they get their mind on taking some more money from us they going to do it, one way or another.

But you ask me looks like pretty soon won't be nobody around here can afford to drive on all these pretty new roads they building - specially if they keep waiting till the project is 2 years under construction to buy up some of the right of way, or to negotiate prices for $500,000 overruns and the like.

Any old boy knows that's how you get skint good when you trying to do some business. But looks like they don't much care bout that over at the Commission, cause whoever's responsible for that ain't responsible, far as I can tell. Us taxpayers are instead, and we get to pay the premium for mistakes somebody else got paid good money to make for us.

Nothing new about government trying to shake me upside down trying to get every penny they can out of my pocket, I guess. But at least when it's Washington doing it I don't have to look the folks doing it to me in the eye every day.

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