The school system wants us to vote in a tax to support their activities. Over half of my property taxes go to schools, and the state lottery apportions part of its earnings to school construction. I voted “no” for good reasons.

Our county commissioners are wasting excess funds, that they admitted they have, on a Seattle trial lawyer to weaken the GMA. The only ones benefiting from this waste of our money are McDowell, Shelton and their developer friends and partners. The total amount they have paid to their friends, over the past couple of years, is just about the amount the schools say they need. I am sick and tired of McDowell and Shelton picking out our pockets and then wasting our money on lawyers they don’t need; as the county has in-house lawyers paid with public funds that can do the job, when there are more pressing and beneficial needs in the country. One of them is property tax relief for all of its citizens.

We don’t need a levy. We need responsible management of the funds that are currently being paid by many of us on fixed incomes. I have paid my share to the schools without any thought for over 50 years. My children are on their own and paying their share. During the years of paying my taxes, I have more than paid my share of their public education, and then supported their college tuition. Now for the umpteenth time, since I have lived here you want me to vote to tax myself because you can’t manage the funds I am paying now. To that I would say, “Go see Mac and Shelton. They have plenty of our money to waste.” Maybe you could talk to our do nothing city council that wastes just about the amount you need on studies, upon studies they don’t act upon.

I have to live within my income. The taxes I pay are your income, and you should learn to live within it just as responsibly.

Donald Bettner

Oak Harbor