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Tolls are about safety and reliability

This is in response to the editorial titled, “Overnight toll-free trips worth try” (July 22). While the idea of removing tolls, even for a few hours overnight, may sound appealing, the truth is removing tolls on the Thruway would cut off the very dedicated revenue stream that supports safe and reliable travel for hundreds of millions of motorists each year. The Thruway is a user-fee system supported by tolls paid only by the people who use it. The Thruway Authority does not receive any dedicated federal, state or local tax dollars to support the cost to operate and maintain its ...

The downside uncertainty of tariffs

The Trump administration’s levying of tariffs is a form of taxation, essentially a tax hidden from public view. They are imposed before the final sale of a product. In essence, tariffs are a pre-sales tax, levied at a port-of-entry on goods coming into the country. They are included in the price being paid by Americans for whatever the product is. So, for example, let’s say a carpet made in Vietnam comes into the Port of New York for ultimate sale here. The cost of the carpet goes up 20% when the federal government slaps a tariff on it in New York, and then it comes here where an ...

Getting serious on immigration issue

I am writing about undocumented people living in our Country, the facts and possible solutions. I want to begin by making it crystal clear I am not in favor of open borders. I support immigration laws and their enforcement. I know our immigration system is broken and is in need of repair. Our constitution makes it quite clear “Congress holds the power to create and modify immigration laws, including setting rules for who can enter, stay, or become a U.S. citizen.” Yet we have seen Congress under both political parties ignore their responsibility. We came close to a bipartisan ...

Wealth has become too big a factor in government

Civilization. Civilian. Civil Society. Civilized. Civility. Civil rights. Civics and Civic responsibility. Civil — the word and its derivatives originated from the Latin civilis. Isn’t it interesting that this word stands for both the structure of a society, and a way of behaving? When we study past civilizations, we look at their stages of social and economic development, the infrastructures that they have built to create cohesiveness in the society, the institutions to create law and order, to serve the common good, and to advance culture, science and technology. The most ...

There’s a critical need for job training

Wells, the ice cream maker, formerly known as Dunkirk Ice Cream, told the newspapers recently that Wells almost did not commit to its current $425,000,000 investment in Dunkirk due to a concern over a lack of labor force here. Wells anticipates needing 270 more workers because of its expansion. In the past 15 years Chautauqua County’s labor force (those working or looking for work) shrunk from about 68,000 to about 54,000, down by 14,000, a shocking 20%. What are the possible explanations for this collapse of our labor force? First, when companies like Truck Lite left Falconer ...

Caution in order on steel, antibiotics

CHAUTAUQUA—Oren Cass is the chief economist at the American Compass. But, he notes, he’s not an economist in the sense of having an economics degree or writing papers about economics. Meanwhile, Dennis Wilder, a professor at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Washington, D.C., is a former senior American intelligence officer and policymaker. ≤ ≤ ≤ Delivering the July 25 morning-amphitheater lecture at Chautauqua Institution, Cass rightly recalled Americans’ buying inexpensive steel from steel manufacturers in a particular country. The country ...