Viewer Mail

An anonymous reader writes about the Families and Education Levy:

Dear Sound Politics,

Thanks for preparing and disseminating the information about the impact and lack of value of this proposal as presented for the ordinary homeowner/taxpayer to educate themselves.

I appreciate your effort and am so sad that we can't solicit a more rational and accountable means to accomplish the goal of this initiative and its proposals.

Thanks again for your groups effort.

You're welcome and thank you for your support.

Reader B.P. also writes about the levy:

Dear Sound Politics,

With this measure recently passing, and as I too opposed it - is there any way a person can be exempt on being forced to pay this via property tax? I am a Seattle home owner, make just above minimum wage with my child attending a private Seattle school.

I don't feel I should be forced to contribute to this.

Think there's any recourse I can take?

Recourse? As Thomas Jefferson once said: "The price of freedom is eternal vigilance". At this writing, with nearly all of the precinct ballots and about 37% of the absentee votes counted, we see that 45,789 voters, a thundering 13% of Seattle's registered voters, managed to impose a $117 million tax increase on all of Seattle's property owners. Once all the votes are counted it will hardly be more than 16% of the voting base that gave us this tax increase. Likewise, the final count of the Housing Levy vote in the September 2002 primary showed that only 53,762 voters managed to wrap an $86 million tax increase around the neck of the entire city.

What is the recourse to kleptocracy by a tiny fraction of the population? Get out there and work harder to maintain your freedom: educate yourself about the issues, talk to your friends and neighbors, write letters to the editors, donate your time and money to candidates and political committees that you believe in. Freedom isn't free. But it's a better deal than an ever-expanding rapacious and underperforming government.

Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at September 15, 2004 02:50 PM | Email This