Just one of the thousands of earmarks within the stimulus package from Washington is $1.7 million for the replacement of four fixed-route CNG buses for Simi Valley (see www.StimulusWatch.org).

What a waste of taxpayers' money. It aggravates me to no end to see these huge 40-seat buses running around Simi Valley empty much of the time or with very few passengers on board. I have never seen one of these buses running as much as half full.

And now the stimulus package is going to take from the pockets of taxpayers to buy four more new buses at more than $400,000 each?

So these buses run on clean natural gas. But how many working taxpayers have to drive their gasoline-powered cars to work each day to pay for the purchase of these buses plus pay the ongoing operating and maintenance expense, not to mention the manpower and materials required to manufacture these buses in the first place?

These buses are overpriced and underused. If the city of Simi Valley needs a bus system, privatize the bus system or operate much smaller buses such as the DialaRide vans at less than one-quarter the cost. Dave Timms Simi Valley