The editorial “Cost of State Benefits” (BDN, Jan. 8) is a one-sided, talk show wannabe article dressed in the finest highly paid rhetoric.

I am not a faceless “state worker.” I am a neighbor, a state cop, a teacher, a nurse, and I plow the roads, too, so you can get to work. I am a Mainer and I know how to work and I am proud of the work I do. I have worked for the last 15 years with less buying power every year due to inflation outpacing any raise I received. I have paid in advance for the promises of benefits. You quote no facts, only parrot another article with no respect for the tradition of digging up facts that journalism used to be so proud of.

The union cannot negotiate health care; the union cannot negotiate pensions. The only thing we really have is the trust we placed in the state of Maine in return for our promises of service. I have no right to strike; the federal government will take 60 percent of my Social Security before I see it to punish me for getting a pension.

I came to work and gave up these rights because of a promise 25 years in the future. I have kept my word; I have worked hard and long. I am proud of having provided services for the state of Maine and for doing my job as well as I know how to do.

Thomas Maher

Stetson