First salvos?

To the editor:

This letter is in response to two letters to the editor that appeared in the May 2 edition of the Belleville News-Democrat, referencing my use of the slang phrase "shot his wad."

Ah, the first salvos!

Could it be that the attack dogs are out already? Two letters berating a slang phrase "shot his wad" -- which has been around since I was a kid -- were printed in the News Democrat recently.

Perhaps these readers would have been happier with a colloquialism such as "giving away the store" or just an opinion such as, "The way our Democrat governor and legislators are spending money is irresponsible."

The bottom line is that when one is called for a quote by the press, they don't give you the time or space for statements such as: I'm delighted to see that Judy Topinka is ahead in the polls because Illinois is 46th from the bottom in job growth; our bond rating is being lowered to a "2" because the state is so much in debt and has no plan for getting out of debt, and we have the worst-funded pension system ($97.2 billion in pension liabilities) in the U.S.

Our pension-system exceeds our assets, yet our governor and his administration keep coming up with new and very expensive programs that we can't afford, good as they might sound.

Ilinois' minimum wage is already $1.35 above the federal standards, but if Blagojevich's proposal to raise it again comes to fruition, Ilinois would have the second highest in the nation ($7.50) while border states are at $5.15.

If you owned a business, where would you put it, especially considering our law suit problems?

Higher wages sounds nice, but small business owners can't afford it which is why we are 46th in job growth and considered unfriendly to business.

If Ilinois was in the red, I would gladly support all the governors costly programs, but let's get out of debt first and then play Santa Claus.

We must be more fiscally responsible, then the jobs will come and higher wages with them. A new governor and some different legislators would be a start.

I apologize to readers of The Record if I offended anyone else with my use of a slang phrase.

I will try to use accurate statistics in the future as they are more instructive anyway. Thanks to the two writers who pointed this out.

Carol Kugler
Candidate for State Representative
District 112