Third option: Cut wasteful spending

In the Sept. 19 Daily Herald, Kent Kirkwood states we have two choices for the kind of government we want, an austere government with low taxes and few services or one that has high taxes but many services. I propose a third choice we have: Eliminate the massive wasteful spending by government.

Here are several examples of such.

• $5 million for Illinois State Fair.

• $3.34 million for The Sparta World shooting and recreation complex.

• $2.26 million on cable TV for inmates (my personal favorite).

• $2.37 million for construction of a 3-D downtown cinema in Granite City.

• $1.3 million to Illinois Film Office.

• $150,000.00 to develop Illinois grape and wine industry.

• $15 million for the operation of The East St. Louis Community College Center.

• $1 million for an ethanol fuel research program. Federal government subsidizes ethanol, so why should state taxpayers throw more money at it?

• $64,000 for Southern Illinois University's student Egyptian Newspaper.

• $42 million from the road fund for "intercity rail passenger service," or Amtrak. Amtrak passengers should pay for this service, not all state taxpayers.

Many more examples of government waste exist, but this paper has a limited number of pages so these few will have to suffice.

If all nonessential spending were eliminated, taxes could be lowered and services improved and our $3 billion dollar deficit would disappear.

But of course that will never happen, because it would stop buying of votes by our elected politicians.

Gene Maril

Arlington Heights