We gain from West Side

Eastern Washington got $133 back for every $100 paid in state taxes in 2014. Some people think that Eastern Washington should separate from Western Washington. They ignore the fact that this would raise our taxes by 33 percent to maintain the same level of services. Western Washington subsidizes Eastern Washington.

The Office of Fiscal Management released the 2014 fiscal report that shows Washington State money spent to the counties. I took the data and pulled out the Eastern Washington counties. The dollars returned to Eastern Washington counties total $2,955,300,000. The dollars paid in taxes total $2,222,100,000.

Eastern Washington receives $733.2 million dollars a year in subsidies from Western Washington. For every $100 paid in taxes, the state returns $133. Eastern Washington taxpayers should vote no to what amounts to a tax raise.

It is not possible to make up that loss of $733.2 million dollars by cutting salaries on construction projects. Since many minimum wage earners have families, freezing the minimum wage would increase child poverty and hurt the education system. A poor education system makes it harder to recruit high-tech and medical industry workers.

Eastern Washington citizens gain more by staying with Western Washington.

Margaret Mortz

Spokane Valley