Budget crisis hits town where Bezos, Gates live

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IANS | 27 Jun, 2019
The Washington town where billionaire Amazon Founder and CEO Jeff Bezos and Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates live is running out of money, the media has reported.

Bezos and Gates, who are worth nearly $119 billion and $107 billion, respectively, have homes in the small town of Medina, in Washington, which is running out of money to support services such as police, fire and parks.

Global retail behemoth Amazon is headquartered in Seattle while software giant Microsoft is just outside the city.

"A town newsletter sent out this month is urging residents to vote yes on a ballot measure that would lift the property tax cap.

"You may find it hard to imagine that the City doesn't have enough income to sustain current service levels, particularly in this economy. While property values continue to rise, the City's tax revenues don't rise in tandem, the newsletter read," the Fox Business reported on Tuesday.

The cost of fire services have increased nearly two-fold in 2019.

"This fall, the question of how to maintain Medina will go to voters. The Medina City Council is placing a levy lid-lift measure on the Nov. 2019 ballot. If approved, the levy lid-lift would provide funds to continue current service levels without significant cuts," the newsletter stated, according to the Fox Business.

The town has a population of just over 3,000 people, and is the seventh-richest zip code in the country.