Just Mucking Around

What is it about some Alaskans - while we are not too far removed from pioneer days (and certainly there are still those places around here that don't resemble suburban America), we've become the biggest whiners in the world.

Take the roads here on the Kenai Peninsula. More than a few developers here have put in subdivisions that have roads that don't meet borough, state, or federal standards. By cutting in these substandard roads, they can sell the lots on the cheap. Come break-up, the roads become quagmires of bus-swallowing mud pits.

People who buy property in these subdivisions either know what they were getting into, or are just plain dumb. It doesn't really matter as most of them start calling Sound Off and/or complain that the borough should come in and upgrade their roads for free. Oh, yeah, these are the same folks who complain that their property taxes (the lowest in the nation) are too high.

Read the ADN's article from April 22

So, the article quotes Jerry Remington who wonders why the borough doesn't fix his road - after all, he claims to pay $90 a year in highway taxes.

Dude, how much road will $90 pave?!? Ummm...maybe about a half a foot. So, what you are really asking is that the rest of us subsidize your property purchase by paying for your road to be improved? When you sell it, do we get a return on our investment?

Oh, and Jerry, are you over 65? If so, you don't pay a dime of property taxes - so what's this BS about road taxes!?!. Maybe you hang out at Chilkoot Charlie's in Anchorage where the motto is: We cheat the other guys and pass the savings on to you!

And why do those who profess to be independent and anti-government and all of that seem to have the biggest sense of entitlement?

Hey, don't you know that you're SOL in SOLdotna?