Letters for Friday, March 20

Millionaires should get ready to move

The Washington state budget has exploded by over a factor of 2, or 116%, from $80 billion in 2013-15 to over $173 billion projected for 2025-27. No way will government change their spending addiction, much less go to rehab. Solution to everything is money, lots more taxes. Money buys votes. Staying in power is only priority.

The millionaire income tax is just another hit to a drug addict, it is already spent mentally, and there is a never-ending list of wants. Earn a million, have almost $100,000 taken, or half a million if you make $5 million. Just to live in Washington.

I suggest that all Washington millionaires use 2027-28 to prepare a relocation plan. If the greedy income tax survives court challenges, hit the road. After moving that “just earns a million a year person,” can literally count their almost $560,000 savings in 5 years (with 6% ROI) for college tuition or mountain property or? Just make sure to keep those dollars out of Washington.

Millionaires are less than 1% of population so they can never vote it down. Big problem will come when whatever group makes up 60% of the vote finds they can vote to issue checks to themselves.

I moved to Washington in 1990 from California and that absence of $6,000/year California income tax made a difference my family enjoyed.

Steve Sontag

Spokane

Baumgartner’s accomplishments

Let’s take a look at some of what Mr. Baumgartner has accomplished in his time in office:

Mr. Baumgartner unflinchingly supports an illegal war using dollars from your pocket to drop bombs on children and put the lives of men and women serving this country on the line.

Mr. Baumgartner voted to take away food security and health care for many of the constituents he is supposed to represent.

Mr. Baumgartner supports the brutal arrests by ICE taking place in Eastern Washington. He supports sending citizens, children and families to detention centers where basic needs are denied.

However, because Mr. Baumgartner supports the arrests and deportation of hard working people in his district, there will be jobs available to help harvest the many crops people depend on right here in Eastern Washington. This income may help you afford to feed your family, to fill your gas tank and to help pay for health care.

Suzanne Thompson

Spokane

Opposite day with Baumgartner

We used to love to play “opposite day” as kids. And now – Trump and Michael Baumgartner are doing the opposite of what we really need …and it feels like we are playing opposite day all over again!

Mr. Baumgartner touts his help for agriculture, but his support of the Iran war is doing the opposite of helping. The Strait of Hormuz – where a third of all fertilizer passes through each year – is now closed. Fertilizer prices will skyrocket. Farm diesel is already up to $4.53 per gallon and climbing – Hello shipping bottle necks and reduced crop yields. Farm bankruptcies will likely get worse.

Three days before the Iran war, Kash Patel fired a dozen FBI agents and staff from a specialized counterintelligence unit dedicated to monitoring Iranian threats in America. Now we have a dangerous “intelligence gap,” which makes all of us less safe. He should have done the opposite – i.e. expanded, not dismantled! Electricity prices are through the roof. What did Baumgartner do to help us? He slashed solar tax credits, home improvement credits, EV incentives, and wind projects as part of the “Big Beautiful Bill.” He gutted programs that reduce consumer costs in favor of raising our costs. One-third of residents in this district now face an energy burden considered “unaffordable.” Thanks Mike.

I’m tired of opposite day. Baumgartner is on the wrong side of so many issues for Eastern Washington. We need the opposite of Michael Baumgartner – time for him to go.

Michael Ryan

Spokane