Kim Jeffery, CEO of Nestle North America, complained that Maine is a hard place to do business because 16 bills were introduced in the state Legislature that would affect his company (story, July 16). How ungrateful we Mainers are, he implies, to force his company to hire high-priced lobbyists to kill these bills. He’s really upset about the bill that would have imposed a 1-cent-per-gallon tax on the water his company takes from Maine’s aquifers.

Don’t you people understand, Jeffery asks, that the Poland Spring brand is sold everywhere in Manhattan and reminds people that Maine is a good enough place for Nestle to have sourced its water there?

Poland Spring is an iconic brand, he says.

Hmmm. I don’t know much about icons, but I thought that New Yorkers and a lot of others think of Maine as a place of expansive forests, uncluttered seashore and clean water, and Nestle was using the state’s image to promote its brand.

I guess we’re just not humble enough for Jeffery. Although our Legislature hasn’t been able to actually do anything, the fact that they keep trying is, well, trying. After all, Jeffery works for a corporation that is used to doing business in the Third World, where officials don’t dare to be as cheeky as they are here.

With all due respect to Nestle Corporation, I have to ask my fellow Mainers: Why are we giving our water away free to this multinational company?

Larry White, Center Lovell