Winer letter: Budget surpluses
When a surplus is not a surplus?
Politicians who lean on cutting taxes to get re-elected continue to target so-called budget surpluses as a readily available source of funding their tax cuts. But what about all of the critical areas of State functioning that have been seriously underfunded for years? We don’t hear much from our Legislature about how they are addressing critical needs in education, infrastructure (roads and bridges to name just a few), health, mental health, and affordable housing. Until the quality of life is improved for the citizens of Idaho there is not a true surplus. Let’s do what we can to see that our legislators know that we care more about how they use their intellectual skills to take better care of our needs rather than finding ways to offer tax cuts that do nothing to truly improve the quality of life for our citizens.
Kenneth Winer, Boise
This story was originally published February 10, 2017 at 9:57 PM with the headline "Winer letter: Budget surpluses."