If you live in King County, vote “No” on subsidies to Big Art, vote “No” on Proposition 1. It’s a 0.1 percent sales tax to fund arts, science and culture.

But we already have the public schools for that and they spend $144,000 per year, per child (that’s 12 years X $12,000/year). And we already have these three federal programs for that: PBS (Public Broadcasting System — channel 9), NEA (National Endowment for the Arts) and the National Science Foundation.

And King County doesn’t need a regressive sales tax that disproportionately hits the working and middle classes and then turns around and subsidizes the arts of the upper classes. Does this seem fair?

And most of the money goes to Big Art, which is already funded.

I love art and science, but government should stay out of it. It’s the working class paying for the art of the well-to-do. That’s not right.

What does it mean that a sales tax is a “regressive tax?”

This means a tax that hurts the less moneyed, it hits in a “regressive” or back-down kind of way, hurting the working and lower classes. A “progressive” tax hits the upper classes harder.

A sales tax, as opposed to an income tax, is a regressive tax because middle class and poor people pay a higher percentage of their income on the basics that are sales taxed. When you make less money, a higher proportion of your income is taxed because basics make up a higher proportion of what you purchase.

Vote “No” on Prop. 1 and say “no” to welfare art.

Jeff Jared,

Kirkland