In his mailings, Sen. Rodney Tom likes to talk about how he has fought against raising taxes. What he doesn’t like to talk about is his role in making higher taxes both easier and necessary.

He voted to repeal I-960 (Senate Bill 6843), thus making it easier for the Legislature to raise our taxes, and then, as one of two original sponsors of the budget bill (Senate Bill 6444) and as a member of the Ways and Means committee, he helped create a budget that required higher taxes to fund it.

His vote against the final budget his committee produced (which he proudly trumpets in his mailings) shows that he is either ineffective or duplicitous. Either way, he needs to be replaced.

David Chicks, Redmond