To the Editor:

In Maine, we rarely see elected officials use their office for personal gain. Yes, some use position to get the good “land deal” for themselves. More often, other ethical politicians stop it.

Cynthia Dill has those ethics and values that are unflinching. I am voting for her because she will be a U.S. senator who is solid, decent and respectful of all of us.

In Maine, for most of our elected officials, doing the “greatest good” for the greatest number means self-interest takes a back seat.

It is with astonishment that we read of the “entitlement” program her opponent touts as good for Maine: the business equipment purchase reimbursement program Mr. King pushed through the Legislature.

This is how King’s program works: When a business buys equipment, they receive — year after year — a tax credit equal to the value of the equipment. In 2010, the state wrote checks totaling $12.2 million to 44 Fortune 500 companies doing business in Maine, and this checkwriting continues as long as the equipment lasts.

This as a result of this corporate entitlement program that Mr. King during his only public service pushed through, and still thinks works.

The program has not done a whit to improve Maine’s dismal ranking as business-unfriendly.

I am voting for Cynthia Dill for U.S. Senate because she has the strength of character, intelligence and moral vision that every great woman leader from Maine has had, and will work in the interest of all Mainers, not out-of-state corporations who would set up shop here via financial handouts at the expense of middle-class Mainers.

Susan Cook
Bath