Letters: Different tax idea; roads, MLK

Here’s a swap: Tax marijuana for roads

To the editor:

Legalize and tax marijuana.

I do not use marijuana and never have, but it appears everyone else does.  As long as everybody is using it, legalizing and taxing it would provide much-needed funds for road repairs.

– Irving S. Rosenfeld, James Island, S.C.

Boosting sales tax for roads is poor choice

To the editor:

As regards the fairest and most effective way to provide an income stream to pay for the repair of our state’s crumbling roads, for the reasons you outline in your January 19 editorial, I agree that an increase in sales tax would be a poor choice.

Would not a better choice be one based on the following premises:

1. Those who drive on our roads more should pay more for their maintenance and repair.

2. Similarly, those who use the roads the hardest (i.e., weight) should pay more for their maintenance and repair.

3. The best metric for usage of roads is gasoline.  (If you drive more miles, you use more gas.  Similarly, if you drive a heavy vehicle, you use more gas.)

If you grant the above, then does it not follow that among all options an increase in the gas tax offers the fairest and most effective solution?  (Bonus:  unlike a sales tax, non-residents who, while driving on our state’s roads would also typically buy their gas in our state, would help pay for our road’s upkeep.)

— Dave Brown, Charleston, S.C.

Thanks for the coverage of MLK Celebration

To the editor:

We are writing to you on behalf of the YWCA Greater Charleston, to express our thanks to you and to Charleston Currents for your outstanding coverage of the 43^rd annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration, South Carolina’s largest MLK tribute.

Charleston Currents was a leading media outlet for reaching the celebration’s largest and most loyal base of potential supporters – and the results were superb:

• The MLK Parade, with Tommy Baker, CEO Baker Motor Company, as parade marshal, and Mayor Joe Riley in attendance, attracted its largest audience ever of parade route and home TV-viewers;
• The MLK Ecumenical Service, with Ambassador James Gadsden as keynote speaker, and Congressman Jim Clyburn in attendance, was a packed church of +1000 persons and a triumphant occasion;
• The MLK Business and Professional Breakfast, with Arnold Donald, CEO Carnival Corporation as keynote speaker, was a sold-out event, attended by 600+ top business and civic leaders…

And these aforementioned are just the premiere events, not including the equally successful: panel discussion; youth speakout and poetry slam; nine area worship services at churches and synagogues; and more.

Again, thank you for ‘taking the lead’ in supporting this MLK presentation by the YWCA, now in its 108th year of service to the Carolina Lowcountry.

— John Brisini and Mike Whack, YWCA-MLK Celebration public relations advisors, Charleston, S.C.