We must build a solid foundation for transit

As chairman of the state House Transportation Committee, I applaud the Post-Gazette for encouraging continued discussions on ways to fix Pennsylvania's failing transportation system and acknowledging the critical state of our roads, bridges and transit systems ("Road Toll: Doing a Better Job With Transportation," June 4 editorial).

We've heard the sobering facts. Now we must devise a way to reverse the damage -- or brace for serious consequences.

Our state is a center for industry, a vital commercial shipping corridor and home to the sixth-largest state population in the country. Its progress cannot be supported by an aging infrastructure with inadequate funding for maintenance and upgrades.

These shortfalls will not disappear with time. And as federal funding continues to decrease, we must come up with a way to fund these repairs.

I strongly believe that before we pump more money into a system that is clearly failing, we must fix its foundation. I have identified an approach to improve the way these systems operate in an effort to reduce costs and fix flawed procedures, without sacrificing quality.

Last month, I announced a package of legislative proposals that would provide increased accountability, efficiency and management of the state's transportation system. I cannot ask the taxpayers of Pennsylvania to support any additional transportation funding without assurance that those tax dollars are invested and spent properly and responsibly.

I am confident my plan is a solid beginning toward that goal and look forward to subsequent discussions resulting in meaningful solutions for Pennsylvania's transportation crisis.

REP. JOSEPH MARKOSEK
Harrisburg

The writer, a Democrat from Monroeville, represents the 25th Legislative District.

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Will we benefit?

Yee ha! Pennsylvania is expected to have a $500 million surplus by June 30 ("Extra Money Is a Boost to States' Budgets," June 11).

What will our governor do? Reduce taxes like 23 of the other 40 states? Use it to help fix state roads or to help public transit? Raise taxes and spend it? Judging from past examples, I would predict he will spend it all on manure to make our grass greener -- and raise taxes to have someone cut it.

If anyone out there can prove that money will be used for anyone's benefit in Pennsylvania, please send an example.

MARK ALTENBAUGH
Millvale

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Consider the logic

When I read Mark E. Dixon's essay ("In Praise of Property Taxes," June 3 Forum), I decided to wait for the uproar to subside. The tone was mean-spirited and the reactions were predictable.

However, I suggest his critics reread the piece, trying to ignore the tone, and concentrate on the logic. The principle is that governmental services are to be provided at the most basic level of government and funded at that level. Education is best conceived, delivered and funded locally. Yes, state government has a necessary oversight role and needs to create a funding mechanism for impoverished school districts -- or consolidate or eliminate them and entrust the work to neighboring districts. It is in the public interest to assure a certain level of instruction.

It is not, however, appropriate to frustrate wealthier districts whose citizens vote to impose taxes on themselves to augment and enhance basic education. The best tax for such is a local property tax. The state can (and has) created ways to provide relief for those in such or any other school districts who become unable to pay their property taxes, but, in the main, local payment of the tax most easily collected is the best system.

JAY JARRELL
Peters

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Shared responsibility

Thank you, Mark Dixon ("In Praise of Property Taxes," June 3 Forum)! It is everyone's responsibility to educate children.

MARY ELLEN TESLA
Moon

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Real relief

The Forum piece by Mark E. Dixon, praising property taxes and insisting that older citizens should sell their empty nest homes and downsize, got my goat. Mr. Dixon wants his parents to downsize the home they have lived in for almost 50 years and move to a location they have never lived in with people as neighbors they do not know. How selfish.

Empty nesters deserve a break in property taxes. They don't burden the schools with children, and they've paid their fair share and need support now when they are most vulnerable. Mr. Dixon, you are a hard man.

Simply look at Delaware, where property taxes on homes are about $1,000 on a home valued at $300,000. This is real property tax reduction compared with Pennsylvania. Has anyone in the governor's office or Legislature studied how other states maintain low property taxes and great schools, too? Come on, elected officials, get with it.

JERRY ROBBINS
McCandless

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Religion no measure

George Washington or Abe Lincoln would be shocked and embarrassed at the degree of public "grilling" of presidential candidates by self-appointed guardians of morality.

Dedicated and intelligent candidates, whose entire lives have been models of exemplary public service, are forced to prove their "morality" by undergoing self-abasing questioning during debates that are little more than "inquisitions" on a candidate's church attendance, knowledge of the Bible and his willingness to publicly espouse deep convictions of belief.

That is the very same religion-based "acid test" of leadership qualification used for centuries throughout the Muslim world, and, as a result, only clerics are seen as being "fit" to rule. Iraq's clerics, with their own armies, police forces and territories, behave more like "warlords" than pious religious leaders. They themselves foster the sectarian bloodshed that has all but destroyed every attempt to improve conditions in Iraq and, in their actions in the end, have made the heroic sacrifices of our troops a disgusting and shameful waste.

The behavior of Muslim clerics should convince any doubter about the fallacy of using a "religion-only" yardstick to judge political candidates. We live in a very complex world, one that demands the very best of our leaders. It is disturbing that so many American voters are willing to irresponsibly simplify their presidential choice by using religion as the substitute for genuine understanding of the complexities and demands of our modern world.

WILLIAM McCARTHY
West Mifflin

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DDT consequences

There has been more than a little bad-mouthing of Rachel Carson recently, such as the June 10 letter that says: "Untold tens of thousands of people have died of malaria and other infections contracted from legions of disease-carrying mosquitoes, which the judicious use of DDT could have eradicated" ("Carson's Legacy").

Well, yeah, DDT eradicates a lot of mosquitoes, but it also eradicates frogs, lizards, turtles, maybe bees and lots of other species. Many of such species prey on mosquitoes and preserve a natural balance of nature. So, we spray DDT, we kill off the natural enemies of the mosquitoes, the mosquitoes develop a tolerance to DDT, and then their population explodes.

A lot of Americans have never learned to look beyond the easy answers. In times like these, we need to start.

PAUL A. ALTER
Wilkinsburg

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Please support this initiative to keep doctors in Pennsylvania

State Rep. Josh Shapiro is certainly being forward-thinking in introducing a bill in the House that will help defray the rising costs of medical education and also provide a badly needed incentive to keep new medical graduates in Pennsylvania ("Will There Be a Doctor in the House?" June 10).

The crisis of medical graduates leaving the state is at a very serious level. Rep. Shapiro needs to be supported in his efforts, and then maybe our legislators and governor will think this serious problem through and start to create an improved medical legal climate, providing further impetus to keep medical people in the state, therefore averting a very concerning problem.

LEONARD A. STEPT, M.D.
Shadyside

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