Editor:

I have been following the debate and planning to make I -80 a toll road. In October it took three days to open up four lanes of traffic. Now I have to wonder how long it would take to open up six lanes.

For those who don't know the history behind I-80, it was Lady Bird Johnson who commissioned that it be an interstate highway "so everyone could follow the majestic route." There was no thought by her as to what it would take to keep it open. It was poorly routed and designed. I would rather see US 30 expanded across from Cheyenne to Laramie in a manner that made sense. It would be a lot safer than traveling the current route and would help with the overburden.

Now we read that the state is low on funding due to lagging mineral severance. The last few years were an economic windfall for this state, but I assume the state spent it as fast as they got it with their idiotic pet projects.

This toll overburdens a select group, mainly truckers that already pay plenty in taxes. This will be passed on to consumers that are already feeling the crunch. Instead of taxing an already overburdened society, I would like to see us get out of the buggy whip era and institute a state lottery. Let's recover that money good ol' Wyomingites give to Colorado, Montana and South Dakota and start collecting money from their residents as well.

Another idea is to stop squandering away money on crap we don't need just because we had a temporary windfall. At least a lottery gives our residents a chance to recoup their money instead of flat giving it away to politicians that will find ways to fritter it away. I see waste every day by the state. I pass by a port of entry in Casper that has to have lights on in the parking lot all night even though there is no one there from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. How about the new Poison Spider school for maybe 300 students? Quite a complex they built there. I didn't see anything wrong with the old one, but hey, we have to satisfy those rich ranchers, don't we?

Hey everyone. Let's play the game of where is Waldo, only with where's the Wyoming state pork barrel dollars. Make a list of your own and send it in to CS-T. Want another one? Why did we repave the old Mayoworth Barnum road at Kaycee, or the road to nowhere as I'd like to refer to it. It services a few ranches and bentonite trucks.

ELMER JOHNSON, Casper