Letter: Cash price laws badly written
FILE - In this April 9, 2012 file photo, gas prices are posted at a gas station in Breezewood, Pa. Pump prices rose relentlessly from January through April, pushing average gas prices above $3.90 a gallon and taxing families' budgets. Some forecasters expected a $5 peak by the time families got on the road for summer vacations. But prices are expected drop by 10 cents by next week, thanks to a recent drop in oil and wholesale gas prices and frugality at the pump. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar) Credit: AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar
Are the New York State legislators who wrote and/or voted for the business law that "forbids surcharging for a credit card purchase but allows a 'discounted' price for cash" illiterate, incompetent or just dense? ["Bill would curb gas price gap," Business, April 20].
The law is not enforced because it doesn't define what constitutes a discount or a surcharge.
What good are laws that are so badly written and self-contradictory that they go unenforced? Why couldn't these lawmakers have anticipated the problems that the wording of their law would inevitably create?
Very often, the troublesome "unforeseen" loopholes in the bills that are passed into law could have been foreseen by a layman of average intelligence. I suggest that the State Assembly and Senate invest in hiring a retired English teacher to proofread all of their bills for logic and loopholes -- and rewrite them when necessary.
Richard Siegelman, Plainview
Editor's note: The writer is a retired teacher.
