Re: Timm Herdt’s April 4 essay, “The few who fund the state”:

Herdt’s article reads as though the top 1 percent should be grateful they pay what they do, even though they represent a much smaller percentage as to the total state income.

His trivializing the issue makes it more difficult to understand that most people in the state do not pay their fair share, not because they do not want to, but because the politicians — Democrats and Republicans alike — have made a mockery of our current tax system.

It is time we switch to a sales tax and eliminate the current systems at all levels completely.

Unfortunately, people like Herdt make it sound like a game and do not address the problem we all face.

— Joe Laraneta, Westlake Village