The editorials of the Bellevue Reporter almost always gripe about taxes and government spending. But without government programs (roads, police, courts, public health, parks, libraries, public schools, financial and environmental regulation, etc), the market system couldn’t function and our country would resemble a failed state like Somalia.

In fact, tax rates are historically lower than at any time in the past 50 years, and Washington state has the most regressive tax system in the nation – meaning that the rich pay a lower percentage of their income in state taxes than in any other state, lower even than the middle class and the poor. One reason is our over-reliance on the sales tax and on the B&O tax (which is based on revenue, not profit). Another reason is the numerous tax breaks that rich corporations such as Boeing and Microsoft enjoy.

Who wants increased concentration of wealth, unaffordable college education, congested roads, filthy air, ugly cities, and welfare for the rich?

As Thomas Jefferson said, “I hope we shall take warning … and crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country.”

Don Smith, Bellevue