My wife and I have taken several trips off island recently, both together and sometimes separately. While waiting in the Anacortes Ferry Terminal car lines we’ve been approached by petition signature gatherers. Each has one or more petitions they ask you to sign. Some of their issues we agree with, some we don’t. What we want to make people aware of is that there is one petition that seems to offer everybody everything. It offers small businesses tax relief and several other “it must be good for us” items. However, at the end of the summary, it barely mentions it is a petition to put on the November ballot a bill that will create a state income tax!

The smiling signature gatherers, when confronted with this fact, continue smiling and tell you it will only affect rich people (over $200,000 annual income). If any of my fellow islanders have ever lived in a state with an income tax, they know this is the way all of them start out – by targeting a “few” rich individuals. Then, mysteriously, a couple of years later, everyone is paying. So, if it is an state income tax you want, sign the petition. Please let others know.

Kevin Golding

Spring Point