Letters for June 15

Left high and dry this wildfire season

Do you remember a time before “wildfire season” existed? It wasn’t all that long ago. These days, as the grasses dry out in yet another drought, we’re all keeping watch for the next wildfire. And we are doing our part to keep our families, pets and properties safe. Our representative, however, isn’t doing his part. In May, Michael Baumgartner voted for the federal funding bill that will cut taxes on the richest people and increase them a little on most of us hardworking folks. This tax cut isn’t even paid for and will increase our deficit. And at the same time, it is cutting vital services in order to give money to those rich folks. Some of those vital services include emergency communications, federal fire coordination staff and rural fire prevention grants.

We all consider taxes to be inevitable. Where do you want yours going? Lining the pockets of people too rich to notice? Or helping our communities with this increasing challenge? Shame on you, Baumgartner. You are throwing your constituents to the fires to curry favor in Washington.

Meg Lyman

Deer Park

Tax on the purchase price, not the assessed value

It’s property tax assessment season again and surprise, surprise all of our values went up. Why should that matter to anyone unless they are selling or buying?

If we demanded the government live off the taxes generated by what our properties were valued at when we bought them (and paid real estate excise tax on at the time) we could eliminate how many government jobs in the assessor’s office? Why should it matter that houses all around us are selling for sometimes three times what we paid for the homes we live in? Why should government continue to profit from our home’s value going up while those of us not wanting to sell get gouged more every year? People can literally get priced out of the homes they own simply because government says they are worth more than we could ever afford to pay for them and thus the taxes need to go up. They almost always go up!

Sure, Realtors would hate it if people were encouraged to stay in their homes longer instead of buying more expensive ones but so what? The simple fact is government takes way too much from us at every level, and we are all its piggy banks that never seem to be empty, according to them.

It’s way past time to tell government “No!” when it wants more of our money! Tax us on what we paid not what government speculates we should have!

Rob Leach

Mica

Federal deficit

Congressman Baumgartner claims to be a fiscally conservative Republican. His voting record, while brief, tells a different story. I encourage everyone to review the current budget resolution H.Con.Res.14 that passed the House on April 10.

This resolution in Section 1101 clearly calls for an increase in the federal deficit of roughly $14 trillion in the next 10 years. The 2034 Public Debt will be $54.4 trillion up from $36.2 trillion today. I am sure the congressman will blame the debt on the prior administration as they all do.

This same resolution calls for a decrease to Medicare and Medicaid spending of $880 billion. This has been labeled as waste, fraud and abuse but the Congressman knows that cutting this funding will lead to a serious cut to healthcare. This impacts people.

Mr. Baumgartner, your constituents are not stupid. Please stand up for the people you serve. They live here in Washington state, not in the White House.

Bill Ulrich

Valleyford