I appreciate the opinion expressed in the editorial regarding not raising the state sales tax and not sacrificing the education of our children to achieve a balanced budget. Part of the reason our wonderful state is running out of cash is due to tax-free shopping on the internet. If you order a big screen TV online and do not pay sales tax then you are required to report that purchase and hand a check to the State of Washington.

Nearly no one but businesses do this and with the sizable amount of internet shopping taking place you can bet that if we all followed the law that we would have a different outlook on our budget.

So, while I agree that we should not raise the sales tax, I also agree that Olympia should be able to collect sales tax on all applicable purchases being made by Washingtonians since that is our law.

Sadly, either way we would still pay more taxes.

Johnmichael Monteith, Kirkland