Tax Dollars

Conference center costing taxpayers I would like to express my concern that during a time of such great financial difficulties, taxpayers are funding a country club for the community college. County workers are facing a pay freeze and furloughs, countless other services are being cut - yet the college is spending $1 million a year on Belmont Conference Center in addition to the $10 million it has already spent. This all comes after the public was assured repeatedly that no tax dollars would be used for Belmont.

Where did millionaires go? After reading Matthew Weinstein's rebuttal ("Millionaires ready to contribute," May 15) to Laura Smitherman's article ("Top payers fade away," May 14), I have to conclude that he has missed the point entirely. To argue whether taxpayers who earn more than $1 million are vacating Maryland is a sidebar to the real issue. The fact is, we are losing revenue because of a flawed economic policy. Raising income taxes on any group of citizens at the onset of a recession, and basing revenue projections off of nonrecession years, is a fundamental misunderstanding of economics.

Last October, in the early stages of a mad scramble to rescue the American economy from a financial heart attack, Congress gave the Treasury Department $750 billion to buy toxic securities from banks. From that not-so-paltry beginning, the rescue effort has evolved into 12 separate programs that cover up to $3 trillion in direct spending, loans and loan guarantees. The potential for waste, fraud and abuse is enormous, the man assigned to protect those trillions doesn't like what he sees, and we are glad he's on the job. Last week, Neil M. Barofsky, the special inspector general overseeing the Troubled Asset Relief Program, said he has already opened 20 criminal investigations and six audits into whether tax dollars are being pilfered or wasted.

'Buy American' boosts economy The Baltimore Sun's editorial "Trade to recover" (March 13) was littered with misconceptions about the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and especially the "Buy American" clause it contains. The $787 billion economic stimulus package that was signed into law a few weeks ago by President Barack Obama is a project made possible by our tax dollars. The money spent under this bill is intended to put an end to the economic crisis facing the American people.

Safer, cleaner, greener. Those three words sum up Mayor Sheila Dixon's plans to improve Baltimore. She also has set her sights on ending homelessness here, finding summer jobs for teens and redeveloping vacant houses faster. Those have been her priorities, and Baltimore's $2.1 billion operating budget reflects them. Do Baltimoreans share the same concerns? Are their tax dollars well spent? City officials have decided to find out from the citizens they serve. A citywide poll, the first in what is expected to be an annual review, would help assess the quality of city services and better determine what residents want.

As one of the members of the Baltimore Pledge of Resistance who has been spied on by the Maryland State Police, I feel it important that people understand we in the Pledge of Resistance are the most peaceful, nonterrorist-type folks you could ever hope to meet. We are committed to raising awareness about the destructive forces of violence in our society and our country, which is one of the reasons we have protested the invasion of Iraq since before it occurred. It is because we love and value this country so much that we work to make it better, and we start by insisting that those in power obey its laws.

Highways are often regarded as the ultimate example of user-financed government. Motorists pay a variety of fees, from state and federal taxes on fuel to titling and registration fees on vehicles, to pay for their construction and maintenance. But are roads truly self-sustaining? A new study says absolutely not. Researcher Mark A. Delucchi of the University of California, Davis' Institute of Transportation Studies recently looked at the nation's total expenditures on roads and compared the result with the total collected in highway-related taxes and fees.