Is a beer tax too much to swallow?

Re “Beer lovers, this $1.80 tax is for you,” May 9

If lawmakers are looking high and low for new tax dollars, why not look in their own pockets?

Time for a paradigm shift. First, require drivers of government vehicles to pay registration fees. Second, require cities and counties to pay taxes on income. And third, require government employees to pay for their own gas, cellphones, toll road fees, lawsuit judgments and so on.

California taxpayers are already doing the heavy lifting -- how about shouldering some of the burden rather than dumping more on us?

George Adams

Long Beach

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I will happily pay an extra $1.80 on my beer and eight cents per song I download if it prevents cuts to schools and healthcare and at the same time punishes those who let clerks wrap a packet of ground beef in a plastic bag, two greeting cards in a separate plastic bag, a bottle of wine in a skinny paper bag and then stick all three in another plastic bag and offer to double it up.

Let’s all do our part to pay for essentials like education and healthcare and at the same time curb some bad habits.

Tanya Magidow

North Hollywood