Tax would make life better but it won’t fly

Please don’t misunderstand me; I intend to vote for this tax increase for transit. As a retiree living entirely on my Social Security, I’m one of those who’ll be hit hardest by it.

But I’ll also be one of those to benefit most from it, if public transportation is increased. With failing eyesight, I may never be able to drive again, so I need Community Transit – badly. And there are many of my fellow riders who need it even more. So I’ll vote for this proposition, and I hereby urge all my friends to vote for it.

However, I fully expect it to fail – to be resoundingly rejected by the voters, and then we’ll get the drastic reductions in bus service predicted. Tim Eyman will love that. I’ll have to move.

And one reason it will fail is that the same day the proposition was announced in this newspaper, this paper carried the story of a pay increase for County Executive Bob Drewel and assorted other public officeholders. I resent that, and I feel betrayed by this man I voted for. I can’t imagine what was going on in his head when he accepted that raise, unless he really wanted the proposition to fail.

Another reason for some no votes is, some of us still remember that Joyce Olson also accepted a raise, last year, when Community Transit was supposedly on the ropes. Do these people really think we forget such things?

Arlington