The Dec. 1 editorial took up the cause of local merchants who unfairly have to charge sales taxes while competing with online merchants who do not. The Sun Journal editorial board's solution to level the playing field is to compel online merchants, nationwide, to charge and pay sales tax to the state of Maine.

There is an alternative solution that would serve to correct more unfairness than just striking a blow for local merchants: Eliminate the sales tax.

The sales tax is, itself, unfair and burdensomely complex. It requires businessmen, already struggling, to perform unnecessary work to collect, document, report and forward tax payments to the state. It extracts revenue indiscriminately from the marginalized members of society — the unemployed, the already public-assistance dependent, the retirees and even children who count out their coins upon a glass counter while purchasing a candy bar.

Worse, some agencies within our community unfairly either do not have to pay or charge sales taxes. These include some of the ever-increasing numbers of nonprofit agencies and our newspapers. Some foods are taxed; some are not. There is no tax on caskets; there is on tombstones. The more than 100-page book explaining the tax states, "It is a major undertaking to administer a law that is subject to change each year and to educate the public in a timely manner to obtain compliance."

The elimination of the sales tax will make unnecessary all of those state employees who collect, administer and explain the complicated tax. It will free businesspeople from their responsibilities as tax collectors. The revenue lost can be recaptured through an increase in the income tax. This will not require additional state workers.

The biggest resistance to elimination of the sales tax is the lost opportunity to pilfer tourists' pockets. There is an alternative way to fleece the tourists: Increase the already existing gas tax. Maine citizens will pay more, but we'll have better roads. Tourists, for all those hours they spend in bumper-to-bumper traffic on Route 1, will contribute to Maine taxes.

Richard Sabine, Lewiston