Be skeptical about dissolving water agency

Can we just jail state Sens. Link and Morrison now for conspiracy to steal boaters' funding from the Fox Waterway Agency, or must we wait for them to actually commit the crime of stealing the cash, laundering it through the ILDNR like they do with license fees, and siphoning the funds to any state project other than improvements on the Chain?

I've been boating and fishing on the Chain for 40 years and had my reservations when the agency was formed and starting to charge user sticker fees. It has become clear as the years passed that the funds stay where they belong and I see on every visit that the money is well spent for the intended purposes.

If the DNR was able to do the same, I'm sure they would, but legislators don't leave them enough money to keep their existing facilities open and well maintained because the license fees go elsewhere. I've been converted from skeptic to a true believer in the work they do by spending user fees for the benefit of those who pay.

I don't know or care what personal vendettas may be fueling their proposal, but I find it counterintuitive that representatives from this area would try so hard to send well-spent revenue elsewhere.

Rather than destroying something that they clearly have no understanding of or empathy for, perhaps they should study how such a small body does so much with its local funding and apply that efficiency to other areas of state government.

Roger M. Pretzel

Lindenhurst