BUDGET: Time to raise taxes

It's no secret that a serious financial crisis has hit the state of Idaho. The question is how the state legislature is going to deal with the current financial situation. It appears that their response is going to be to set the budget based upon the expected revenue and then go home without doing anything significant to improve the situation. After all, it's an election year and they don't want to do anything to upset their constituents whom they will be asking for a vote from in November.

Even a fifth-grader can understand that if the cost of running the state goes up, and the revenues don't, then something must give. I agree that cuts must be made, but revenues must also be increased in order to minimize the potentially devastating effects of those cuts. We are all in this together, and together we must all bear the burden of getting out of the situation.

So tell me legislators, are you smarter than a fifth-grader?

RICK JONES

Rathdrum