Initiative 1033 might help us keep our homes. But city council member Dini Duclos said (Sept. 23): “This year we saw that our homes are down in value. So our taxes should be lower also.”

Really? This is what happened to us:

1. Taxes were raised on our land.

2. In addition, taxes were raised because we have a “sweeping view,” which amounts to half of what we had when we moved in, and it gets less each year.

3. Taxes on the house, initially lowered because of real estate devaluation, were then raised because we replaced some rotting wooden windows and doors. That’s called maintenance.

Let’s go back to those new windows. First we worked hard at our jobs and earned some money. We paid taxes on that money. With some of the money that was left, we bought new windows and paid taxes on the windows. Now we are paying taxes on those windows for life in the form of property taxes. That’s three levels of taxation on one amount of money earned. That is unjust.

A message to government workers: Every penny you spend comes from people who earned it. It is not yours by right.

Mr. and Mrs. John Montgomery, Federal Way