No new taxes? They can’t be avoided. They may be camouflaged as fees, or inflation adjustments, but they have to happen.

Every new event needs more taxes. Presidential visit? More unbudgeted expense. Air travel security? What pays for the Homeland Security Agency? Every new prisoner costs us money. Homeless programs cost money. Research grants for cancer cures aren’t free, drug companies don’t give away pills, health insurance costs are skyrocketing keeping people alive to outlive their resources and become Medicare patients. Money for infrastructure repairs/replacement for ballooning populations has to come from borrowing. Bond interest payments come from where? Government mandates (OSHA, No Child Left Behind, ADA, building permits) require more staff for enforcement. Technology improvements, disaster relief, lawsuits and settlements, saving parks and wilderness — all are necessary for a viable society, and require money for implementation.

Face it. New changes need money, and the only place it can reasonablly come from without threatening peoples’ survival is from those individuals and corporations that have it.

Terry Slaton, Federal Way