New funding paradigm
Paul Gottlieb’s conceptual presentation of the voter/taxation issue (“Port of Port Angeles considers levy lid lift to pay for John Wayne Marina upkeep,” PDN, June 8) is in need of a little correction.
The headline says that “Voters may be asked to pay more.”
First, voters are often not property owners and property owners are frequently not voters.
Further, it is not the voters that pay taxes, it is home owners.
The voters are just the tool of government to once again squeeze the homeowners to pay for their pork-barrel projects — in this case, the John Wayne Marina.
As in the case of the William Shore Memorial Pool, the marina should be paid for by those who use it instead of by the majority of homeowners who do not.
At the very least, property owners should be divided into two categories: those who use their property for business, making money from it, and those who just live in their homes but gain no revenue from doing so.
The latter group should not be taxed as their home ownership is not generating funds with which to pay such taxes, whereas the former group is.
Once again, the bureaucrats and pro-government lackeys see the homeowner as an easy target when it comes to raising money for their pet projects.
Come on people, let’s get a new paradigm for funding limited-interest projects and quit sticking it to homeowners.
Tracy McCallum,
Port Angeles