To the editor:

Rep. Elise Stefanik’s cynical outburst, threatening to call the “feds” Federal Communications Commission out on the state Department of Transportation for charging a user fee on fiber-optic companies having cable installed on DOT owned roads, authorized under the state budget law, omits the more reasoned approach of merely suggesting imposing the fee would undermine the predominant state policy of supporting, even with subsidies, fiber optic installations, particularly in rural areas such as the Adirondacks.

We assume in using this confrontational approach, Stefanik is pursuing her campaign to undermine confidence in local government. We also assume that the Republican mantra of non-intervention in state issues by the feds is no longer in vogue, or is Stefanik really not a Republican after all?

By the way, while local leaders in the Assembly and Senate have praised her for publicizing the issue, what have they done to intervene with the DOT and did they know they were authorizing this tax when voting the state budget?

Lewis Rosenberg

Paul Smiths