Former Auburn Mayor Bob Roegner’s piece in last week’s Mirror (“Accountability needed more than ever”) is spot on. Mr. Roegner asks a series of tough but fair questions about how our community will choose to invest its resources. Although most of his piece focuses on issues here in Federal Way, his message is equally valid for all of our state legislators. There is a real difference between the budgets that have been proposed by the Democrat-led House and the Republican-led Senate in Olympia, and this difference provides a great chance for us to make our values known.

Indeed, budgets represent values, and the House budget promotes values that I support. Because of our lopsided state tax system, where low-wage earners pay a much higher percentage of their income in taxes than high-wage earners, opening new revenue streams that help to both equalize the tax burden and fund essential programs is necessary. For example, closing the tax break on capital gains will bring us closer to fully funding K-12 education and maintaining vital funding for key services like mental health that make our communities thrive. I am a pastor who serves at Christ Lutheran Church in Federal Way and the spouse of an Amazon employee. Under the proposed House budget, my husband and I are in a position to pay the capital gains excise tax. We would gladly pay this on our stock sales in order to help fix our upside-down tax system and fully fund education.

Reverend Chelsea Globe, Federal Way