In January 2026 the state legislature will be looking to raise taxes again (“New sales tax on services in Washington takes effect,” published Oct. 8).

In 2022 Washington had a historic $15 billion surplus. Then Gov. Inslee and the Dems took care of that by crafting a $38 billion budget and basically used your credit card and spent $70 billion in 2023-2025 creating a $16 billion deficit.

During the same period, revenues had declined by $903 million due to “lagging sales, real estate excise taxes, tariffs, trade controls, inflation, etc.”

In spite of having a meaningless balanced budget requirement, Inslee, and now Ferguson, abetted by the majority Democrat legislature will increase their spending anyway. Go figure! Should we be ever grateful for a single party legislature in control?

Using simple math there is no way citizens could run their home expenses following the Dems’ plan for success. Who will bail you out when you’re indebted? Why should public officials be allowed to over spend? The majority Dems just pass more taxes and fees onto us to cover their burdensome overruns.

You should have your ballot now. Carefully examine all legislative/local candidates for any office, then make a wise decision.

George Terhaar

Enumclaw