Dear editor,

Regarding the Dec. 27 issue, “Marshfield explores wheel tax.” I have been a homeowner in Marshfield for 17 years, aside from the ridiculous “street repair referendum” that failed, never before has the municipality come around with a referendum to pay for street repair.

What happened to your budget? We pay property taxes and spare me the semantics about how the property taxes have not been increased significantly to justify this nonsense. The reason: We ran the “tax and spend” crowd out some time ago – you’re welcome.

For what we pay in exorbitant property taxes, the very least we could expect is to have a few potholes filled; to say nothing of the ransom in tax that we pay for every gallon of gasoline. Meanwhile, the elected elites in Marshfield can’t figure out how to access these funds and instead blame Washington.

Vehicles under 8,000 pounds would be taxed. You have it backwards don’t you? Instead of taxing vehicles under 8,000 pounds, which hits every working family in the purse, why not tax every vehicle over 8000 pounds.

There are commercial vehicles plenty roaming our streets to include at least two major trucking companies. They cause more damage to our roads per vehicle than 30 soccer mom mini-vans. Instead, you take the path of least resistance and come after the working family again, when the question needs to be asked, “Who managed the budget so that there are no funds left for streets?”

You can’t fix roads, but you can afford the “Second Street debacle,” the “park,” the two-lane bike path adjacent Oak Street. The alibi is that these funds were “donated.” Taxpayer money or donated, we will never see that accounting.

So,  instead of another new tax, which lets you off the hook for this gross mismanagement, why don’t you start by being accountable to the taxpayers and explain why you are unable to perform a basic service like street repair.

Edward F. Slany
Marshfield, WI