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Prop 1 for the common good

Congratulations to Spokane voters for approving the Feb. 12 fire and police levy over the opposition of our mayor and The Spokesman-Review.

S-R publisher Stacey Cowles cited the Washington Policy Center, where his wife is a board member, to argue that firefighters and cops are too highly paid. This Koch brothers-funded group is an enemy of labor unions and attacks the public sector while income inequality soars.

Our citizens have other priorities for how our tax dollars are spent, including robust levels of firefighters and cops to keep us safe.

If there is a gap between public safety salaries and the median household income in Spokane, as the Washington Policy Center says, it is the private sector that is largely to blame for suppressing wages.

Middle-class pay has stagnated since the 1970s, according to the New York Times’ David Leonhardt, who argues that private-sector workers would be making $15,000 a year more if wages had tracked GDP since 1970.

Kudos to the Spokane City Council for advancing the vote on the fire/police levy. As a city homeowner and taxpayer, I’m proud to be putting my money where my priorities are: for the common good.

Karen Dorn Steele

Spokane



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