To: jeevacation@gmail.com[jeevacation@gmail.com]

From:

Sent: Thur 9/16/2010 2:00:14 AM

## Subject: taxes ugh

well washington state (so far) has been a state without income tax. on the current ballot is an initiative that would start a 9% tax for residents above $300K and a 5% tax for those between $200-300K. the tax is off the top and doesn't differentiate between types of income (where you are taxed further, it seems like). there is also no reduction in the very high property taxes, and 10% sales teax, etc. bill gates senior has done all of the tv ads in support of it however all of the other local execs have tried to come out against it. bill jr just doesn't care and hasn't made a statement.

of course steve and i are totally against it. steve is against is because he says it really hurts his work's ability to recruit folks and and we are both pesonally against it because we are already paying a lot in all the other stupid taxes in this state.

two questions -

is there any thing that can realistically be done to stop this tax from happening?

and

is there anything that we can personally do since we have to live here to find a way to reduce our tax burden that is legal and won't get us thrown in jail?

super frustrating