Rising Gas Prices Hit the Tax Payer
The rising price of fuel has not only driven up the cost of food, consumer goods, and regular driving, but it is inevitable that tax payers will have to pay more for the gas that goes into the array of vehicles driven by the city and the state.
While some towns in the Monadnock region have curtailed gas prices by implementing policies of no idling, this is only a drop in the bucket when it comes to the thousands and thousands of dollars spent to fuel patrolling police cars and other city and state vehicles. So what can be done about this? While some towns are looking into outfitting some of their vehicles to run on biodiesel, each vehicle will cost thousands of dollars to outfit, at the tax payers expense of course, and each vehicle will still consume costly fuel. Other towns have begun implementing more bike police, but this still does not address the main issue. Services will need to be cut, or the tax payer will continue to take the hit.
Believe it or not, there was a day when you could drive down Main Street in Keene NH without passing a police patrol car. Was it more dangerous to live in Keene before there was a police car around every corner? How about this for an idea - leave the fleet of police cars at the station until someone calls for help. Do fire trucks patrol the streets of Keene in search of fires? Of course not. Why then do we need police cars patrolling the city at all hours of the day and night looking for people rolling through stop signs?
While some towns may be implementing a few measures that will save a few dollars, when push comes to shove, services need to be cut. We can no longer afford to pay for city officials to drive everywhere at the tax payer’s expense, and personally I don’t know why we thought we needed all these patrol cars and other services in the first place. While the Keene Police Department should be looking towards ways to cut back on their patrol cars, they have recently bought some new cars, including a not so gas friendly SUV.
With the rising price of gas it has been hard for many working class people to make ends meet, and unless the city and state cut back on services, come tax season it will become even harder. I know that I have had to change my driving habits, and it’s time for the government to do so as well.
