Proposed trash surcharge would cost citizens

While Michigan's unemployment rate skyrockets and businesses abandon our state for better economic opportunities, Representative Aldo Vagnozzi and other state legislators attack the waste disposal industry. Vagnozzi wants to artificially raise fees on landfills to reduce the amount of business between Canada and Michigan while at the same time increasing costs to the overburdened taxpayers of this state.

While waste disposal may not be the most desirable industry, what choices do you have when your state leaders maintain policies that drive business away and all you can expect are table scraps? At least the waste industry provides a needed service and gainful employment. This is more than can be said of the Michigan legislature. If Vagnozzi spent as much time fighting for lower taxes and less regulation, we wouldn't be Canada's dumping ground.

[Letter to the Editor - Farmington Observer - Published 04/07/2005]