The November voter turnout displayed either burnout or apathy. Either way this indifference will have consequences.
I’ll focus on Monroe, which is where I live and have tried to make a difference over the years.
The coming year will bring changes to property owners, for sure. A double-tap property tax increase, one from the county and then your Monroe government. Both under some false flag of desperation. (see school bonds that addressed increased student body at the middle school; it turns out the student body count isn’t expected to change) In the end your fixed mortgages increase regardless if you can afford it; low income and retired persons, here it comes!
The Snohomish County scorched-earth growth management process is in full force in Monroe. Homeowners showing up to meetings to address their concerns about the impact of traffic and roads are told to come back after the project is approved, which by then is too late.
Same with property rights. That too is being regulated to the point where you have to ask the local governments permission, and pay a fee, to do any simple thing to your property. As if Monroe is a new form of city wide homeowners association.
Those living in my neighborhood on the south side of the tracks won’t miss out on this either. New high density regulations will jam up neighborhood streets with more traffic as they try to squeeze onto the main roads. The people you just elected to office know this. If only you drank the same Kool-Aid as them then you might understand their thinking.
I don’t have all the answers, but I do have a log of questions. We can only hope that we get a response other than a cheesy smile from a bobble head.
Pay attention folks. Demand results not talking point. And then vote!
R. Todd Olmsted-Fredrickson
Monroe
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