Why do you live in Marysville? Because of low taxes? Probably not. It’s more likely because this is where you could afford a home. While lower taxes often come with that, it doesn’t mean no taxes. We still have to pay taxes so we can be safe and educate our youth.

People in Marysville have been paying lower taxes than most cities in Snohomish County for at least 30 years. Not only because of lower home valuations, but also because we have not supported our schools by having a consistent flow of money to replace them.

We often hear how kids are leaving Marysville and going to Lakewood, Arlington or Lake Stevens because their schools are better. That’s wrong to do because people in those communities pay higher taxes to make them that way.

We have a chance to fix a longtime wrong Feb. 11. We can start paying the taxes we should to help our community. We know tax bills are coming out, and that they are going to be much more than last year. But that’s because our bills actually went down an average of about $400 a year ago. Compared with two years ago, taxes aren’t going up much. We paid them in 2018 so we can pay them now.

However, if we pass the capital levy to build two new schools and improve security at the others – starting next year that tax bill would go up another $700 on average. While that may sound like a lot, that’s less than $2 a day.

Nobody likes to pay more. But when you think about all the money you haven’t paid for 30 years, it doesn’t sound that bad.

We are the second-largest city out of 21 in the county yet our taxes are near the bottom. We have more people to share the tax burden so it is embarrassing that they are so low.

Even if we pass the capital levy, we would still pay less than nine other cities. And add Everett to that list if it passes its measure Feb. 11.

Better schools would improve our entire community in so many ways. Isn’t it time?