A new I-85 interchange for Amlajack Boulevard is a great idea. Providing heavy truck access to industrial areas separate from regular automobile traffic can only improve traffic safety and reduce mechanical stress on Highway 34.

Disappointedly, the article also states, "funding for the new interchange is included in Coweta's list of projects for the proposed regional Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax."

Using T-SPLOST to fund this is a very bad idea. This improvement should be budgeted from normal tax income. We need to demand government explain why approximately $2 billion a year of gasoline tax revenue isn't enough.

Adding a special tax is disastrous because history shows government will never let a tax sunset (Georgia 400 tolls and the current crop of SPLOSTs). Moreover, raising the tax in Coweta to 8 percent is tantamount to active discouragement of new development and growth. Our hodge-podge of dedicated SPLOSTs shows consumption is already too heavily taxed.

We all need to remember government will spend in anticipation of revenue, and that's debt. Moreover, debt is what plagues us now -- personal and the more than $1 trillion in public debt. Thomas Jefferson said, "To preserve our independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt ... I place ... public debt as the greatest of the dangers to be feared."

Our government is disconnected from our forefathers' wisdom. Debt destroys. Make government live with what it now gets and save for what it wants, or rearrange its priorities. Just because government says it wants more money doesn't justify giving it to them, no matter how laudable the project.

A new interchange is a great concept, but voters must send government a clear message: Live within your income, not ours.

Ken Schaefer

Sharpsburg