In the past few years our state has gone from having a surplus of money to having a deficit. Now a racetrack is being proposed. Where do our elected officials think they will find the money? Through more cuts in spending and raising taxes is my guess.
The cuts in spending sound like a good idea until you realize it means cuts in programs like Medicaid and the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation, which helps retrain the disabled for jobs. It also means cuts for housing authorities that can help with subsidized rent for low-income working people. These agencies are out of money and putting new applicants on waiting lists if possible. The Snohomish County Housing Authority is not accepting any new applications due to the lack of funding and the length of the current list.
I am disabled and have been on the waiting list at DVR for more than a year and have not moved up at all. No one can tell me when or if I will receive help to work again. I have been on the waiting list for help with our rent for a year and have not moved there either.
We have elderly people who can’t afford medicines, children living in cars and going hungry, and people with no medical coverage. We have cut spending to the bone.
Let’s look at this realistically – $250 million for the track plus $80 million for road improvements. Let’s add 20 percent for cost overruns minus the $50 million the IRC will pay and the grand total is $346 million.
How can we in good conscious allow our elected officials to spend this amount of our money on a track that will be used twice a year?
Kimberly Spjut
Marysville
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
