If the annexation meeting at the Dubsea Coffee Shop is any indication of what begin a part of Burien is like, COUNT ME OUT.

As a meeting place it was hot, noisy with loud fans, the coffee grinder going and not enough chairs. The City Manager/Martin started the meeting by telling us to expect more in property taxes, business taxes and fees. Medical marijuana dispensaries will be closed. He was really unable to tell us/North Highline what more he could give us for our extra taxes other than enforcing more codes and changing our culture up here.

It seems Burien has no monies to improve the road, park, and such. And he is not even sure how much money he really will get. Some people from the city of Burien raised the question of how much money he is going to get from the state because his report called the Berk Report gave a different amount of money he could get than what he was claiming.

Jerry Robison cut off one of the guys who was asking questions and refused to even let the guy finish his question about the law and this sales tax money. So the guy's question never got asked and we never heard the answer.

But Martin said what ever money we got from these sales tax credits would have to go to police and we are only going to get two with Burien but would get 15 with Seattle.

Another lady asked a question about what was promised in a budget for us in North Highline and Martin said there really wasn't a firm budget but we should look at the Berk Report. I'm not sure what good it would be to look at the Berk Report if it was wrong as he and Jerry said it was about the sales tax credits.

Frankly, I don't think that these guys really know what they are talking about and they don't have enough money to give us the services we need.

Martin told a story about a Greek guy named Sisyphus at the meeting but got the details of the story wrong and then compared it to our situation in (I guess) North Highline. If he couldn't get the details of that story right, I'm not sure that he can get the details of what we really need up here. After 10 years, this extra state money will run out and Martin could not explain how we will then be able to pay for our needs.

M. Johnson
North Highline