This tea party had a little bite to it.

About 45 islanders converged at noon on the courthouse lawn in Friday Harbor to protest against government spending at all levels in a local rendition of the anti-tax tea parties that took place last week across the nation.

With signs in hand and hats adorned with tea bags, residents of Lopez, Orcas and San Juan islands shared a distaste for the taxpayer-financed bailouts of Wall Street and the banking and automobile industry, as well as this year’s $3 trillion-plus federal budget. They had little appreciation for any increase in state or local taxes either.

Orcas Island’s Cindy Carter said her property tax increased by 28 percent this year. In addition, she noted a 7-percent increase in garbage tipping fees recently went into effect, that land owners now pay a parcel fee for to help prevent stormwater runoff, and that the fee for noxious weed control has more than doubled since it first went into effect.

“I’m as angry as I can possibly be,” Don Pencil of Orcas said.

A chant by the group may have summed up the mood of many:

“No more taxes, no more fees, no more bailouts if you please.”

The tea party protests coincided with Tax Day, the April 15 deadline for filing state and federal tax returns. For many gathered on the courthouse lawn, it was a first-ever plunge into political activism. Another 25 people joined in by the conclusion of the hour-long event.

With eight children and one son in the military, Debbie Degraft of Lopez said she’s concerned about the size of the national debt and where the Obama administration is leading the nation.

“I’m very concerned about Mr. Obama’s direction,” she said.

Jenny Ledford of San Juan Island said politicians who voted in favor of the bailouts should be voted out of office.

“Anybody who voted for the bailouts needs to go,” she said.

According to the online National Debt Clock, the outstanding public debt as of a week ago was about $11 trillion, or, specifically, $11,176,306,318,864.49.

With an estimated population of 360,008,050, that translates to $36,522.92 for every man, woman and child in the United States.

For some, last week’s anti-tax and spend rallies were more about the fallout on future generations than which political party is responsible for ratcheting up the bill.

“It’s not about partisanship,” San Juan’s Koshi Holt said. “It’s about our children and our grandchildren and what kind of world we’re leaving them. It’s an American issue.”