Your Opinion: Response to Salcedo on transportation tax

Dear Editor:

This is in response to J. Don Salcedo letter published on July 25. There are several points made in the letter I want to comment on.

First those driving big SUVs are not paying their share but we need to remember that those vehicles have a large sticker prices and they will pay the increased sales on their purchase price which also will be on motor homes and other recreational vehicles.

Then big trucks should pay their fair share in this letter and others that have been in the paper, but I say big trucks never pay any share because whatever the cost of moving the goods from one location to another is added on the cost of the items they haul. So you and I pay their cost when we purchase the goods we need. It just seems like they pay it when they purchase the diesel fuel but they just pass it on to us.

He mentioned those Missourians who are retired and on fixed incomes shouldn't have to pay and I say most of their purchases will be for those items exempt from the sales tax increase, like groceries, prescription drugs, rent and utilities.

He advocates a small one cent increase in the gas tax, which might have been good years ago before a lot of deferred maintenance has taken place on the highways and bridges and vehicle fuel efficiency caused the revenue to go down.

I would guess that it will take a doubling of the current 17-cent fuel tax to produce the revenue needed for our transportation system. Without an increase in funding we will still indirectly pay by increased vehicle maintenance costs, more front end alignments as potholes don't get fixed, etc.