Regarding the Sunday letter, “An example of needed taxes”: I am sorry about the wildfire losses that our state is currently suffering, but life is not risk free, and no amount of increased taxes can thwart acts of nature, such as lightning strikes, windstorms, landslides, etc.
Tim Eyman’s initiative is constructed to give people an opportunity to vote on tax and fee increases by allowing them to vote on a constitutional amendment that requires a two-thirds super majority of both houses of the Legislature to raise taxes. (Recall that this voter or super majority option has been voted in by large majorities at least three times and then nullified by legal chicanery.)
Putting proposed tax increases on the ballot will enable voter determination of the kind and amount of taxes needed for ongoing government operations. This would be democracy at work.
This initiative should slow down the tax, borrow and spend mentality that appears to grip our state. Not everyone can have everything at someone else’s expense. Perhaps property owners that live in wildfire areas should anticipate possible fire loss and purchase homeowner’s insurance.
State costs could easily be decreased by limiting or doing away with public employee government unions which cost taxpayers big dollars and ushering in right-to-work laws. (A civil service structure would be a nice change for the better.)
Increased taxes should be the last resort, not the first and/or easiest way to address state needs. Rather than raise taxes, how about prioritizing spending? How many fires could the $9 billion given to Boeing extinguish?
Jim Vibbert
Stanwood
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