Budget Deal

In response to “Highlights of Budget Deal,” Part I, July 2:

California is indignant that it cannot spend the $2.5 billion surplus over-collected from you, due to the Gann initiative. The state wants to circumvent the initiative.

Education must compromise and accept 40.2% of the budget, down from 48% which Proposition 98 gave it. The government holds the law hostage to compromises.

Transportation taxes will be increased, to include the construction of toll roads in both northern and southern California.

Critical services which affect the life of all people (trauma centers) the indigent, the underprivileged, the mentally ill have been drastically cut. They are the scapegoats for the government’s anger at people’s refusals to give it carte blanche in taxing and spending.

The government has prioritized the budget deal for projects that are removed from the public’s control through agencies and mazes of commissions that benefit mostly big business.

We are taxed on gas to build roads and toll roads. Then we will pay for using toll roads built with tax monies, while the government will obtain additional revenue through leases, an indirect form of additional taxation of the people. These are the actions of the Republicans under the leadership of Gov. George Deukmejian.

The state government represents only big business not the taxpayer. It is high time for a tea party.

THOMAS KARDOS

La Puente