Looking out for working people

Editor:

Does anybody doubt that it is the working people who for the most part use the bridges, tunnels and highways of this country?

Here is how the politicians will be helping the middle class and the poor as they go to work to provide for their families.

Jon Corzine, the governor of New Jersey who ignores speed limit and seat belt laws, wants to increase tolls on the New Jersey Turnpike and Garden State Parkway by 50 percent every four years, starting in 2010, and add an extra adjustment for inflation. For those of you familiar with these roads, these are not toll increases, they are increases in parking fees.

In San Francisco, the Golden Gate Bridge will raise its toll to $6 from $5 if a board approves after public hearings. This does not seen too bad. It is only $1, but the city is also considering a separate $2 toll when drivers get off the bridge. Leave it to the People’s Republic of San Francisco to come up with a revenue-producing scheme that doubles the inefficiency and delay while turning blue and white collar workers and professionals into indentured servants.

Starting in March, the toll on the George Washington Bridge will go from $5 to $8 for cars and $25 to $35 for trucks. Who do you think will eventually absorb the increased trucking costs?

More brilliant plans are in the works for Indiana, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. People in these states can plan on spending their tax rebates to get to work.

What the federal government giveth, the states taketh away.

Len Willens, Green Valley