Kristi Morehouse raises some excellent questions in her Oct. 26 letter (“Growth: Developers must pay their fair share”). She asks, “With all this development, where are all the new tax dollars going?” and “Who is accountable for all the new tax dollars being generated by the new building?”, along with “Whose pockets are being lined while ours are being picked clean?”
The problem is she points at the businessmen working to earn a living rather than the government she has elected or allowed to be appointed. The builders and developers in the Lake Stevens area and everywhere else pay an enormous amount of money. They pay impact fees, permit fees, mitigation fees and surcharges as well as taxes. These same builders put in wider roads, sidewalks, streetlights, playgrounds, sewer and storm systems, underground utilities, cables, electrical, etc. They add more to the quality of your life than you give them credit for. Then when it is all done they hand a permanent tax base over to the local city or county government. You are pointing at the wrong people. Just as in so many cases it is our local government who squanders and misuses the precious lifeblood of tax money you send to them.
Marysville
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