Are you a disgruntled resident ready to go postal on the ladies at the town office because they refuse to lower the property tax on your trailer?
What is your basis for your view?
This will undoubtedly surprise you, but somehow I graduated from a public high school in Maine and now have a job in a non- local gov't, fisheries, timber, tourism industry. Many of my classmates are also braving this "hell-hole" after stints living away because they value the quality of life we have. None of us consider ourselves lucky to make enough to pay for our own food.
Are rural areas depressed economically? Sure, but I'm guessing they're no worse than the rural parts of whatever state you call home.
Wait... what am I doing trying to change your mind?
You're absolutely right: this is a great place to visit, but you wouldn't want to live here. Please plan your next vacation to Maine, spend lots of money, drive politely while you're here, then leave us be.
Oh, and buy whatever Steven King publishes next.
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MAINE VOICES: Mary Adams, Mainetoday.com, 10/27/04
Maine's high taxes break up families
Government overspending in Maine is hurting each of us personally.
The Taxpayer Bill of Rights initiative petition, which voters can sign on Election Day, will put a simple referendum question on the ballot next year that gets at the heart of our high taxes: excessive spending. The petition has three goals: setting a rational spending limit for all levels of government, returning money to taxpayers when revenues exceed that limit, and letting taxpayers vote on all tax and fee increases.
People who want to stay in their homes are being forced to sell because of taxes which are based on what someone else would pay for it. I have an 84-year-old friend who bought a house in Camden when he retired in 1971. The taxes were $1,000 a year.
Last year he paid $13,000 in taxes for the same house and this year, after revaluation of the town, his tax bill is $26,000.
Variations of this story are being lived by thousands of households, and have given rise to Question 1 (the property tax cap) and angry taxpayer associations all over the state.
Even if you can afford your property taxes (Maine is No. 1 in the nation in property tax burden as a percentage of income) you've probably seen many of your children move away because the Maine economy can't support them.
If you've lost your children to other states with more robust economies, it means your bonds with those grandchildren aren't as strong as if they lived down the street or within driving distance. Not having you near by means that those grandchildren have lost a chunk of their family cheering section.
If your children have gone out of state to work, you've lost a major component of your old age security system. "I'll stop by and see how the folks are doing" is part of the conversations of children who did not have to move away from family.
We can all afford to do without a few things in order to pay reasonable taxes, but we should not have to do without family, especially if the cause of their departure from us is government- induced.
And who hasn't lost dear friends to lower-taxed states? These are people whose friendships and functions in our lives cannot be replaced, especially as we grow older. It takes a network of associations to keep people in their homes in their senior years and neighborhood friendships are part of that network.
When paying taxes stops being a benefit to people and starts to be a burden out of proportion to our ability to pay (we're No. 2 in the nation in per capita state and local taxes), then we have to take matters into our own hands.
That reasonable response is the Taxpayer Bill of Rights. We've got an impressive, dedicated unpaid army of volunteers, but we also need citizens to assure that every person who votes on Nov. 2 has a chance to sign the petition.