Letter: My grandchildren not for sale

Gov. Henry McMaster has a warped sense of economics. He states he will veto a bill to raise the gas tax but wants to borrow a billion dollars instead. Forgetting that a normal person wouldn’t run a household budget in that fashion, he should realize it is not a sane approach to simple problem.

South Carolina gets 30 million visitors a year, most buying gas. And that does not include the millions of drivers purchasing fuel along our many interstates while traveling through South Carolina. Why should they not share the load of our road repair costs? Why borrow money and have only residents (and their children and grandchildren) pay what should be shared by all road users? Why should South Carolina’s 4 million residents have to pay for the 30 million to 50 million nonresident users?

The Koch brothers only see black and white when it comes to tax increases and such a simplistic view doesn’t reflect the reality that a gas tax is a user-pay system.

We see stories about backward countries selling their children to settle their parents’ debts. As my grandchildren will have to pay off McMaster’s bond costs, how is this any different?

Governor, my grandchildren are not for sale.

This story was originally published April 21, 2017 at 2:24 PM with the headline "Letter: My grandchildren not for sale."