I really appreciate the information that the Sun Journal brings to its readers, such as the pieces regarding salaries of health care executives and the list of bills presented to the Legislature that was recently printed.

The article of April 22 on lobbying, “MTA’s lobbying near the top,” hit on a particular peeve of mine — the hiring of professionals by many organizations to present their bias and, in fact, develop relationships with legislators over months and years. Many of their positions are in direct opposition to the best interests of the public.

One point I might make about Maine Municipal Association — I think their exposure is much greater than the amount of money stated. I believe that at least some of the lobbyists are employees so they probably don’t have to register as lobbyists. They are always there when a bill would cause a municipality more work, and their information is closed to the citizens of those towns and cities.

I very much appreciated the article “State and private workers earn about the same” (April 24). It established the truth that employees may actually suffer financial loss when they serve the public.

I thank the Sun Journal for doing the in-depth studies on many of these issues.

Marilyn Burgess, Leeds