Air Taxes Too High?

Toni Taylor’s “Are Air Transportation Taxes Flying Too High” (Nov. 2) is a curious statement. She seems to think that those who benefit from government services and facilities should not be expected to pay for them, that the vast majority of American taxpayers who do not fly ought to pay to benefit the relatively few who do.

Everything that floats, rolls and flies in this country is subsidized by federal, state and local taxes. . . . Economists seem almost unanimous in calling for a total end to all subsidies, thus forcing users to pay fully the enormous costs involved. Thus airline companies, and their passengers, would be asked to pick up their shares of the $2.6 billion cost of running the FAA’s air traffic control system, just to cite one example.

And why not? We pay for our telephone services, our gas and electric services, why not transportation?

ROBERT A. RAMSAY

Arcadia