Years ago, I had a business that needed a server to be located right next to a high speed internet backbone, an arrangement known as “colocation”. The company was fine, their tech people had a clue, and my server moved its bits with quiet reliability. Colocation is a rental type of arrangement, and I paid a certain amount monthly. With modern bill pay, they always got their money right on time.
All of a sudden, at the end of the latest year of service they told me they were tripling my price. This was during the golden age of computing power and networking speed growing even as its price shrank. A 10% price raise would have made me wonder why they’d raise my cost, even as their own continued to plummet.
But tripling my bill was a message. And the message was: go away. Once one side of a business arrangement goes sour, there’s nothing to be done. Cut your losses and move on. Otherwise they’ll just make the message even clearer, doubling and tripling your bill until you “get it”.
Which brings me to my latest appraisals from King County. We have some land; some is farmed, some is gardened, and the rest is maintained against future needs. This year, our appraisal was quadrupled. Yes, suddenly the tax man decided to look at my land as four times as taxable.
My business experience tells me it’s time to move on. But the place where you’ve raised kids, farmed, hosted gatherings? It’s not just a business decision. Although with the brutal growth in taxes and fees was already making it harder and harder to balance our books here.
But maybe I’m just in the 20% who are currently being targeted. If you feel that you don’t need to care, I’ll remind you that you don’t need to care yet. The kind of government which chips off 20% of its people is not the kind which will stop. Your turn as the “lucky” 20% will eventually arrive.
In war this is called defeating your enemy in detail; focusing your full strength on smaller parts, so that each battle is easily won due to the overwhelming odds. Why our little chunk of Vashon has become King County’s latest enemy is no doubt an entire article on its own, even if I knew the answer. What I do know is it’s not fun.
You don’t need to be alone. If you have a property tax story or thought, let us know: editor@vashonloop.com. Dealing with an out-of-control government is definitely something to be dealt with sooner rather than later.
