This is in rebuttal to the letter from Robert Price concerning annexation, which was short on facts and repeated the same old propaganda we heard from the pro-annexation side before the election.

I found the claims made in this letter consisted of a lot of false accusations and misinformation.

Annexation, in fact, was an attempt at a power/land grab by a group of Burien and King County politicians working in concert to further their own ambitions.

Their political agendas unfortunately did not coincide with the best interests of the residents of Area Y or the residents of Burien.

Annexation was wisely turned down by a large majority of Area Y residents who refused to have the wool pulled over their eyes.

The defeat of annexation was a victory for democracy and a victory for the residents of area Y who prevailed in spite of a large sum of money spent promoting it by the city of Burien and the strong support of King County politicians who were desperate to get the red ink of Area Y off their balance sheet.

The writer of this letter along with a group of disgruntled pro-annexation activists are still stunned by the election results and they continue to beat a dead horse as if it will somehow bring it back to life if they don't accept the result.

The writer of this letter continues to repeat the same old propaganda that the failure of annexation by Burien will be a take over of Area Y by Seattle even though all the facts show otherwise.

Seattle has no interest in annexing Area Y. The growth management act does not supplant the will of the voter and Area Y cannot be forced to annex by anyone without the due process of a vote by the residents.

The ridiculous claim that most of those opposing annexation owned property in Area Y and had a financial motive in defeating annexation is patently false and borders on slander.

The writer mentions road maintenance is low in Area Y. Obviously the writer is oblivious to the condition of many roads and sidewalks in Burien, which need repair, but lacks the funds to maintain and yet, in some pipe dream, Burien would have found the funds to fix all the roads in Area Y?

The recent hiring of several police to patrol Area Y would not have been matched by Burien so they are better protected now than if annexation had passed.

The first thing that Burien politicians did after annexation failed was to increase taxes, I guess they were waiting until the die was cast before they did exactly what the independent White Center PAC warned us they would do.

To sum up, yes, I agree, all voters should check the facts before voting, but going to propaganda meetings where the all the facts are not presented is a very poor method of arriving at the truth. Burien could not afford to annex Area Y and if it had passed we would have all fallen off the fiscal cliff together.

The reality of the defeat of annexation is that both Burien residents and Area Y residents are much better off than if it had passed.

John Poitras
Burien