Oregon bicycle owners beware!

[Aint Doody]

But, Zen, he makes some really good points. And besides I like wacky, old curmudgeons.

[Tuckervill]

What would the letters section of the newspaper be without the local curmudgeon?

Karen

[salsabike]

I know the guy that writes that blog. What a wacky old curmudgeon

But, Zen, he makes some really good points. And besides I like wacky, old curmudgeons.

<snort> So does Biciclista. I believe that would be the spousal blog she's citing...

[Biciclista]

more from the wacky old curmudgeon (has the ring of truth!)

http://theboothbychronicles.blogspot.com/
Dear Representative Krieger:

I've been accused recently of being a wacky old curmudgeon for something I recently posted in my blog expressing my feelings about your new proposal to the Oregon State Legislature. You can read that if you would like, but I doubt it would give you any great insights or change your mind. I did, however, find one of your remarks to Bicycle Portland recently to be particularly telling:

"Talk about a time when you need some revenue for transportation...bikes have used the roads in this state forever and have never contributed a penny. The only people that pay into the system are those people who buy motor vehicle licenses and registration fees."

Your logic here, sir, is flawed. Every citizen, regardless of their mode of transportation, pays into the sytem. Here are just a few examples.

When I leave my house and walk to the grocery store, spend $100 in purchases of food and other essentials, I am paying a price for those goods. In order for those goods to be manufactured, tranported to a warehouse, picked up and transported from the warehouse to the grocery store, there was a price to pay for shipping. It costs roughly $6,000 in freight charges to move a truck load of fresh produce from California to New York. Of that, a substantial portion pays for gasoline and other highway taxes. Further, each employee of the grocery store had to get to work. Most of them drove. Their salaries are paid by the grocery store, who adds the cost of those salaries into the cost of goods sold. Those salaries paid for the automobiles those employees drove to work. By my purchase of goods, I, too, paid for the construction and maintenance of those roads. I paid for this whether I owned a car, drove a car, rode a bicycle, rode the bus, or flew.

more at the blog!

[sundial]

We also pay personal property taxes on the furniture in our house, too.

Yeah, isn't that dumb? I just hope Arkansas doesn't get tax happy here pretty soon. I have a feeling though the farmers are about to get creamed.