I am writing to complain about a flier I received in the mail from the legislators in the 10th District. Reps. Barbara Bailey and Barry Sehlin recently sent a flier to all residences in their district. They were saying that public employees are wanting a pay raise and those pay raises were going to cause taxes to be raised.
What I object to is their deceptive terminology. Instead of saying teachers and school employees want to keep the cost of living raises intact that the voters in the state of Washington voted for (by over 60 percent in every county) they said that public employees want pay raises. This is very misleading. They want people to believe that public employees want new pay raises. They leave out the fact that they are talking about teachers and those cost of living raises have already been voted for by the public.
This state needs to stay competitive in attracting and keeping good teachers. We can’t lose our best teachers to other states that pay much higher salaries. Not only are other states gladly willing to vie for our businesses, but they are also vying for our best educators. Both will affect our economy and our ability to generate taxes, jobs and income. Furthermore, many of our teachers will retire in the next few years and leave more of a gap in our education system.
Let’s support our kids and help them to get the best education possible by attracting and keeping good teachers. And Reps. Bailey and Sehlin, do not insult your constituents by misleading them.
MARY MURRAY
Lakewood
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