The school district is requesting we add still more to our already onerous property tax bills. We recently approved an almost quarter-billion dollar levy for a new high school. Now SVSD is back for more.

It’s ironic that the levy will be voted on Feb. 13, the day before county tax bills are mailed. Maybe the school board fears our reaction when we see how much our tax bills have increased. Property taxes on our home have gone from $5,500 annually to almost $7,000 in the past three years. We are being taxed out of our homes. You will be too.

The school district’s “newsletter” is actually a 12-page campaign brochure printed on the same heavy gloss paper used to promote luxury vacations. It does not mention the total levy rate with the proposed increases.

Enough is enough! In 1978, voters in California staged a “tax revolt” slashing the state’s public education funding. In their anger, they cut taxes too deeply, ending free university for state residents and other programs that gave California a reputation for excellent education. The result was that public education took a beating.

Our obscene property tax increases will result in the same backlash. Keep sending levy after levy, and that will be the guaranteed result. Like many other Valley seniors, my wife and I are volunteers with civic organizations. How will driving us out of our homes improve the community?

Washington has the most regressive tax system in the nation. Poor, elderly and working-class citizens already carry the brunt of state taxes while Boeing received an $8 billion tax break. Republicans refuse to consider a capital gains or income tax on multimillionaires while the state supreme court holds the legislature in contempt for failing to adequately fund public education. Their “solution” is to have us foot the bill with endless school levies.

Don’t be taxed out of your home. Note no on the school levies.

Dan Olah

North Bend