We are under siege

Mayor Suzette Cooke wants a city property tax increase and a $20 car tab fee in her 2017 budget proposal.

Southeast King County properties have had approximately 10 percent average increase in value. Property taxes will increase in 2017 depending on the amount of your new valuation.

Ballot measures:

• ST3 (Sound Transit) per the Seattle Times, property taxes, $25 per $100,000 of assessed value. Car tab tax increase of $80 per $10,000 of vehicle value. Sales tax increase, another $.50 on a $100 purchase.

• Initiative 732, carbon tax, the Mother of All Tax Increases. In the name of global warming, any fuel that generates a carbon emission will be hit with new taxes on top of existing taxes. Gasoline, natural gas, diesel fuel, coal-fired electrical producers. The costs of doing business will be passed on to the consumer in the way of higher utility rates, gasoline prices, consumer products, higher freight rates and just about anything you don’t grow in your back yard. Let’s cut to the chase, global warming is about making huge money, billions.

• Kent School District bond proposal. Let’s be clear. A solid education and facilities are not optional for our kids.

However, there has to be a better way to accomplish these goals.

Per the voters pamphlet, it’s stated that our property taxes will not increase. The explanatory statement says, “The bonds would be repaid out of annual property tax levies over a period of 20 years. The exact amount of such annual levies for these bonds would depend on the amount of principle paid each year and on the “interest rates” available at the time the bonds are sold.”

Interest rates are at historic lows and have nowhere to go but up.

The voters should not be asked to sign a blank check.

– Dale Brantner