{"id":581994,"date":"2010-05-27T14:51:46","date_gmt":"2010-05-27T18:51:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/seattletimes.nwsource.com\/html\/northwestvoices\/2011968004_salestaxinkingcounty.html?syndication=rss"},"modified":"2010-05-27T14:51:46","modified_gmt":"2010-05-27T18:51:46","slug":"sales-tax-in-king-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/581994","title":{"rendered":"Sales tax in King County"},"content":{"rendered":"

Seek pay and benefits cuts<\/strong><\/p>\n

King County Executive Dow Constantine has inherited a budget problem created by the former King County administration. [\u201cCounty looks to property tax after defeat of sales-tax plan,\u201d page one, May 25.]<\/p>\n

However, his proposal to solve the problem and protect basic police and criminal-justice system services is not going to work. Voters are not going to approve a raise in any taxes.<\/p>\n

There is only one solution: Constantine must sit down with the union leaders representing King County employees and law enforcement, and get them to agree to reduce employee pay and benefits.<\/p>\n

If they fail to work this out, the criminal-justice system and police services would be gutted. The county administration and unions would try to blame the voters, whereas the unions and employees hold the only viable solution that would work.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Walter Huff, Des Moines<\/em><\/p>\n

Vote out the incumbents<\/strong><\/p>\n

I am in disgust today after our elected leaders, again, failed to lead. If fact, they did not even have to lead, they just needed to decide to let us decide.<\/p>\n

The Metropolitan King County Council cannot seem to allow the voters of the county make a decision on what we need in our communities.<\/p>\n

While I do not want a tax increase, I would rather have the option to vote for one if it meant saving King County\u2019s criminal-justice system. I find it hard to believe that there are no other options available to cut rather than our Sheriff\u2019s Department and courts.<\/p>\n

It is really time to vote out all incumbents.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Jeff Keller, North Bend<\/em><\/p>\n

The financial nanny<\/strong><\/p>\n

If the residents of King County are savvy enough to elect a County Council, I am not sure why the council then thinks it needs to operate as a financial nanny.<\/p>\n

The tax measure was to put it on a ballot \u2014not to move forward with a tax increase. I am perfectly capable of deciding whether or not I am willing to pay a tax increase to maintain criminal-justice programs.<\/p>\n

Although I am retired, have limited income and do not live in a $400,000 home, I do believe I could manage $38. Give me a choice.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Deanne Gilbert, Kirkland<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Seek pay and benefits cuts King County Executive Dow Constantine has inherited a budget problem created by the former King County administration. [\u201cCounty looks to property tax after defeat of sales-tax plan,\u201d page one, May 25.] However, his proposal to solve the problem and protect basic police and criminal-justice system services is not going to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2861,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-581994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2861"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=581994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581994\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=581994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=581994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=581994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}