Letter: Cleveland doesn’t respect voters

Sen. Annette Cleveland, D-Vancouver, is worried about a “lack of respect” for 100 years of Senate rules (“In our view: Voters’ Will Followed, Jan. 20, The Columbian)? What about lacking respect for voters who want to make raising taxes harder?

Democrats have controlled our Legislature and governor’s mansion for 30 years. During that time, K-12 education became so underfunded that our Supreme Court held the Legislature in contempt.

Cleveland could have joined Democrats Tim Sheldon and Rodney Tom, whose bipartisan efforts made possible the largest K-12 education funding increase in history. They “changed rules” to act in children’s best interests. Sadly, Cleveland put party politics ahead of solving the problem her party created, voting twice against ESSB 5034.

Cleveland laments the other party’s respecting voters’ wishes regarding raising taxes. Whose side is she on? Who is Cleveland listening to? Apparently not the voters.

Our state is expecting $3 billion more in taxpayer “revenue” this year. That’s over 8 percent. What local family is getting an 8 percent raise this year?

Gov. Inslee and Cleveland say 8 percent is not enough. Inslee is requesting over $1 billion in new taxes. He wants 15 percent more of your money when compared to the previous budget.

Who is out of touch with local families? It’s not Senate Republicans, who respect voters’ wishes by making it tougher to raise taxes.

John Ley

CAMAS