“A billion here, a billion there and pretty soon you’re talking real money.”-Everett Dirksen

Lane/Tommy: Since it’s budget time in Augusta and many municipalities, the need for our government to spend our money runs rampant. It is time to direct our elected officials to spend our limited monetary resources in a prudent manner thus lowering our ever-increasing oppressive tax burden.

A prime example, whether in Windham or Augusta, is the cost of studies for projects proposed by wiz bangs who want to stay in some kind of elected office forever. Common sense should be paramount in the budget process. Good leaders should be more concerned with business rather than being re-elected. Feel good legislation has to go.

Lane: What really gripes me is the amount of legislation proposed that calls for more studies that will only result in increased government spending. The suggestion to bring back the Mountain Division Trail as a working railroad is a prime example of government malfunction. Didn’t we just spend umpteen millions of dollars making part of it a walking trail? What happens if this train fails to cover its own costs? Do we subsidize it or spend millions more to return it once again to a walking trail? Will it become a train to nowhere except the week of the famous Fryeburg Fair?

Tommy: What will be the purpose and the destination of a train from a place like Portland to Fryeburg? Will new businesses flourish along such a railroad like this? Politicians constantly state that this rail line 50 years ago was useful because people enjoyed the scenic ride and businesses were located along the Mountain Division Trail because of economic benefits. This system shut down around 1958, about the same time that the Boeing 707 began service and changing the world forever. We cannot turn back the clock. Airlines and automobiles have changed the world forever.

Lane/Tommy: Will this be another proposal like the train to Rockland from Portland so people can travel to the Lobster Festival one week a year? Railroad cars were refurbished at a cost of millions of dollars. The train was declared a success because several hundred people purchased tickets costing $40 to ride the train and enter the Lobster Festival. Something doesn’t add up at all. The benefit of that line was that several hundred people rode the train at taxpayers’ expense.

Tommy: All one has to do is watch the news or read newspapers to learn of our local and state needs and wants and the willingness of officials to spend our hard-earned tax dollars. Maine has many deteriorating roads and bridges and yet the majority of the needed repairs are not part of the state budget. We have to borrow money to fix those problems. Where is all the money collected from fuel taxes going? Isn’t it time for our legislators to bring Maine out of the age of dinosaurs so that our children and grandchildren have a secure future instead of interest on bonds to pay for? The state budget always increases yet no money seems to go for roads and bridges.

Lane: It’s time to prioritize what Maine and Windham have for wants and needs just like all of us have to do for our family’s budget. Tax dollars in this state have been misused for bells and whistles that our elected officials have wanted, not needed. Now is the time for the voters to tell our representatives that enough is enough.

Lane/Tommy: When will the squandering bureaucrats in government come to the realization that they are spending too much of our money? Houses are going into foreclosure and businesses are going up for auction at an increasing rate. What do you think our government priorities should be? Should their pay and benefits constantly increase while our roads and bridges fall apart?

Lane and Tommy, of Windham, have invented an automobile that is powered by nuclear fusion. Their first attempt destroyed the continent of Atlantis as they had invented a bomb instead of a reactor. If you would like to be the first to drive this vehicle, please call them. It will be a long distance call and they will mail you the keys. They guarantee that you will receive a bang out of it.