County pols give themselves a raise and ask us for more!

I just read that Snohomish County Executive Bob Drewel is proposing new taxes again – property taxes up 6 percent, an increase of sales tax and that doesn’t include the 14 percent or more that our utilities have gone up over the last year. I own a home (I should say the bank owns it). It is not huge or fancy. I work for a good company, but even still we don’t get more than a 2 to 3 percent raise in a year. We are lucky to have a job and luckier if we actually get a raise that matches cost of living increase for a year – most of the time we don’t. Last year my raise was about 2.5 percent, but by the time you added in the fact that my health insurance went up, my take home check was actually less than the year before. Add to that the increase in school taxes, EMS taxes, property taxes, sales taxes and goods/services and I am actually making a lot less than before. Now they want more!

I am really not a Tim Eyman fan, but now with this latest proposed increase, some of what he is proposing is sounding real good about now. I don’t want to hurt the police, fire, social or any other programs. But I do have to worry whether I am going to be able to afford to live in this county and where I will get the money to pay for the increases that they are proposing.

The politicians were able to give themselves a raise, yet hard working people (who don’t have a say in their own pay) don’t get enough to even keep up. And now they want to add more.

What do we do? We can’t spend as much money for goods and services because all our money is going to taxes. The goods and services raise their prices because they have to pay higher wages and people aren’t buying as much. How do we keep up?

Stanwood

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