I am writing this letter about our ever-increasing taxes in this state, which are going up and up and up!

We had Initiative 695, you know that everything has gone up due to lack of funds because of this initiative. Ha!

Now, we have had a recent city, county and state tax increase – 8.2 percent to 8.9 percent. Now they say it is OK to have another gas increase!

We also have a brand new tax on cigarettes, which is unconstitutional. All that money was supposed to go to uninsured, low-income people. The state representatives want to use that money for something else entirely or we can just pay another tax increase on something else.

Does anybody realize that we have an unemployment rate that is on a daily average of 8 percent? Has anybody else realized that minimum wage only went up 18 cents! So, for those who have jobs, you think you could kick in for the rest of us? Just maybe we don’t need to pay for the basics for our families, like food!

With all the taxes and higher gas prices, higher utilities, higher water prices (and the fact that we had no drought), who has anything left? Does the state of Washington think that we have deep pockets? I know for a fact that every time I reach into mine that I keep coming up empty and wondering where I am going to find the money for what the state wants me to pay now.

Marysville