Your March 5 editorial opinion on taxing air was difficult to take seriously.

Throwing out a question about Gov Gregoire’s sin tax, which includes increasing the tax on soda pop and bottled water was not helpful. Our state budget (and many other states and local governments) are seriously impacted by the Great Recession. This is “our” collective state government, it does not help to position citizens against elected officials.

A primary purpose of our state budget is to fund public schools. Would your Tea Party ideology and Tim Eyman initiatives help pay for public schools? We can’t have it both ways: kill state tax revenues, and kill funding for public schools.

On the idea of taxing bottled water, let’s be clear the tax is not on water. The tax is designed to slow down the mountain of discarded plastic bottles that is accumulating in “our” landfills.

Years ago, I worked in a soda pop factory (L&E Bottling, Chehalis) that filled glass bottles. At one time, “our” state had a bottle refund for returned bottles. It was a small incentive (like a nickel) to return a glass bottle without discarding it in “our” landfill.

As for taxing soda pop, the tax is designed to slow down the consumption of sugar. Michelle Obama has recently launched a nation-wide campaign to shine a light on this serious health risk. Nutritional science shows us that massive consumption of sugar leads to obesity and Type II diabetes.

Richard Morris, Redmond