Editor,

I just read your editorial characterizing Mayor Scott Dudley’s sortie to get new leadership for Island Transit as “inappropriate.”  No, it’s inappropriate for Bob Clay to fail to right Island Transit and cast blame on State Auditor’s Office employees for his failures.

Let me suggest that if Coupeville doesn’t want to hear from Sedro-Woolley and Oak Harbor about OLF Coupeville and Island Transit — both of who are funded at least in part by national taxes — well then Coupeville can forfeit all American, Washington state and Island County tax support for Coupeville.

Remember, every grant Coupeville and Island Transit receives is at least partially paid by taxes confiscated outside of Coupeville city limits. As such, all Americans have a right to speak up since all taxation is confiscation and Americans have a right to taxation with representation.

So now that efforts to muffle Mayor Dudley to represent those “understandably alarmed” folks have borne fruit, be unsurprised if some blogging Oak Harbor residents stridently supporting Mayor Dudley utilize RCW 36.57A.160 (3) to place the dissolution of the Public Transportation Benefit Area (PTBA) governing Island Transit on the ballot via getting petitions signed by “10 percent of the qualified voters” of Island County within “a 90-day period as designated by the petition sponsors.”

Considering the conservative base is more reliable than the progressive base in off years like 2015, negative campaigning will actively suppress progressive votes — and with little public support for Island Transit. 2015 is the ripest time to campaign to dissolve Island Transit, especially if the Tri-County Connector is eliminated, therefore costing Island Transit my support and businesses start publicly wondering where that .9 percent sales tax rate is going. … An angry electorate may just terminate Island Transit.

Joe A. Kunzler,

Island Transit User

Sedro-Woolley