Here come the snake oil salesmen again, telling us how much easier our lives are going to be if we simply let them tax us just a little bit more. In return for a flat 5 percent income tax they’re going to eliminate a portion of our property taxes, lower school levies, lower the B&O tax, and reduce the sales tax by 1 percent. In order for them to do this, they need we, the people who are being fleeced, to vote for a change in the state’s Constitution. We had something similar occur some time ago. Remember when we had no lotto in this state? Well, these same snake oil salesmen came up with a bright idea. If we would just vote to establish that type of gambling, they would put all the profits into the schools, eliminating the need for levies. So we voted it in. Then, for some unknown, unforeseen reason, the lotto did not make enough money to support itself, let alone leave anything left over for the schools. Alas, what to do, what to do? The geniuses in our Legislature came up with a marvelous plan. By shifting all the money from a trust for the schools to the general fund, from which they could steal, the problem was solved. The lotto suddenly became profitable, the snake oil salesmen got their cut of course, and we the people were left holding the wrong end of the stick once again.
Any thinking person with half a brain can see where this is headed. If we, the fleecees, give them what they want, we’ll end up holding the same old end of the stick. As soon as the Constitution is changed to allow them to establish this tax, they’ll raise everything else back up to where it was, slowly over time, like the frog sitting in the pan of cold water, waiting for it to boil, we’ll be right back where we started, but with the additional onus of a state income tax, which they will then raise at their whim.
Don’t fall for this same old scam again. Once the Constitution is changed to allow this, they will have us at their tender mercies once again; it will be only a matter of time before that 5 percent flat tax gets raised in an ever ascending spiral. Don’t give the snake oil salesmen the chance to make you jump into that same old pan of cold water again.
Frank A. Langley
Lake Stevens
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