Gov. Inslee, our Washington legislators and local leaders (including Kitsap County commissioners) do not care about seniors on a fixed income. Their main purpose seems to be finding ways to tax us out of our homes.

Instead of finding ways to curtail out-of-control spending, they have only one agenda — to find more ways to raise taxes! My monthly $8 raise in Social Security will not pay for the $54 per month ($652 per year) that my property taxes increased just for this year. And mine was only an average increase.

Contrary to what our leaders say, Washington state has plenty of money. The problem is fiscal irresponsibility. The Washington State Department of Revenue recently told me in 2017, over one BILLION dollars was collected for real estate excise taxes alone just from the sale of homes.

They collect hundreds of millions of dollars from sales of liquor, cannabis, tobacco, Lotto and from business taxes — which is more than enough to fund schools and provide for law enforcement and our safety. It is their duty (per our state Constitution) to fund our schools first. Property taxes and levies should not fund schools! Remember when they lied to us about Lotto funding schools?

It’s time people start organizing to rein in government spending and vote the greedy rascals out! Please don’t let your state officials lie to you. There is plenty of state revenue for our public schools without raising property taxes and forcing seniors out of their homes or the state.

Robert Daugherty

Olalla