Mountain - Plains - What would you say to this person?

There is an article (http://www.metrowestfyi.com/story_display.php?sid=5790) on my local newspaper's website that talks about our small towns north and north-east of the Denver metro area planning for the expansion and connection of trail systems in our vicinity to form our part of the large Colorado Front Range Trail (http://parks.state.co.us/Trails/ColoradoFrontRangeTrail/). The story provoked a single, anti-bike response on a website well-known for its negative, unintelligent criticisms and personal attacks. I was going to respond to this, and still might, but I thought I would use this example instead to improve my debating skills on this subject (and perhaps in general) by reading your hypothetical responses to this person's comment.

Now, of course, the first option is to do nothing/ignore the person altogether, especially considering the overall quality of the comments on this website and pointlessness of the resulting arguments, but I think that leaving these comments unchallenged, especially when it's as personally relevant and myopic as this one, imprints or reinforces those perceptions on the part of other readers of these comments.

So, I ask for your help: What would YOU say in response, not necessarily to change this person's mind, but to represent the other side with greater cogency for the wider, silent audience? (hardly a new concept, I'll admit)


http://www.metrowestfyi.com/story_display.php?sid=5790

Wow, what an idiot that guy sounds like. On and on about "tax money," but odds are he isn't smart enough to have gotten very far -- and thus probably pays little in taxes anyway.

This is what I posted:
Hey man with the plan A h*le, Mega Stu Dittos, yeah, and we pay taxes too, probably more than a moron minimum wage earner such as yourself.

To mmeade and "Stu": Thanks for making me smile, but personal threats or insults are not what I am looking for (Stu's was somewhat appropriate, though, given the spring-loaded fist indignity).

I want to refute his claims that we cyclists pay significantly less in the taxes used to provide city and county road funding--I've read on Bike Forums that most of such funding comes from sales tax which we all pay, but I don't know how to determine how our taxes are spent / cannot find evidence online to prove that argument. I also wanted to see if there was a way of responding that did not require this kind of evidence.

Got a blank page when I tried your link. The paper doesn't have a search engine (that I could find). What was the title of the column and I can look it up in google with a little more luck.

Sorry, it looks like they prune articles (and their associated comments) that are two-weeks old, so there's nothing left to do in this case.

However, I'd still like to find some reputable internet source that could back up any future argument I may make that bicyclists pay (nearly) as much for city and county roads as automobile drivers.

Well, I know this - I have three vehicles. I also know the amount of sales tax I pay on bike stuff is 6.% in El Paso county. I also know I pay a tax for search and rescue. Finally, if you bring up the point that if there are more cyclists on bike paths, there are less speed jockeys talking on the phone on your favorite Colorado interstate....

Jon