Rural Maine Towns Give Up on Self-Government

NPR - National Public Radio ^ | June 10, 2005 | Howard Berkes

[Murtyo]

I heard this on NPR this AM (yea sometimes I listen!!!). How come Maine's counties don't assume these responsibilites once a town becomes too small to exist as a legal entity?? Any Mainers can answer this?

[PubliusEXMachina]

Property taxes are killing these small towns. As more land gets taken over by the state, or converted into wilderness sanctuary and taken off the tax rolls, the townspeople have to pay more in property tax. This state is really Taxationland, not Vacationland.

[Murtyo]

So are the envirno doing this, or causing it to happen? Ideological greens who want vast tracks of the country off limit to humans or at least development by humans?

[PubliusEXMachina]

Well a little of the enviros, and a little of state land grabbing at the behest of the enviros. Also state laws that make it more costly to log the forest and make the land less attractive to investors and paper companies. So by default the state will facilitate the land purchases with enviro groups. The small towns, with people on very modest incomes, cannot continue to raise taxes, so they deorganize. Then the state picks up more of the cost of education. That is basically why the towns do this.

[Capn TrVth]

*ahem Roxxane Quimby*

[Random Nonsense]

very disheartening really, since I really like Maine. I am planning to have a property someday over there, say 100 acres of land with a small cabin

[PubliusEXMachina]

You can find it, but make sure that it is no where near the proposed North Woods National Park. You might end up losing your land to the "greater good".

And as for Roxanne Quimby, that *itch ought to take her Burts Bees money and shove it where the sun dont shine.

[bill1952]

"Maniacs," not "Mainers." :^)

Well, vey bad trends for Maniacs, but Karl Marx would be damn proud.

[Shortwave]

LOL! I hope you have lots and lots of money to pay the taxes! I have lived here all my life and what is happening to this state is unbelievable. One county is so poor it ranks in the top five poorest in the nation and number one east of the Mississippi. In fact, 15% of the population still does not have indoor plumbing.

Maine has become a wasteland with vast tracks of property being confiscated by the rich from out of state who immediately post the land. It is so sad to see this state dwindle away. I really love it here but I really hate it here.

I wish a great conservative writer would come to Maine and write a book about what will happen to the country if liberalism is allowed to run amok like it has here. If you want to see the future of America in the care of liberals, take a drive through Washington county.

[spinestein]

[Some towns in rural Maine are ceasing to exist as independent entities, instead putting local decisions in the hands of distant state bureaucrats.]


I heard this story on NPR this morning, too.

I thought it was interesting and informative (for NPR), BUT they just had to get in their obligatory dig at "the war in Iraq". One of the interviewees was lamenting that when the town cedes authority to the state it's the same thing as giving up democracy. He then whined that we shouldn't be spending money trying to bring democracy to the Middle East when towns in Maine are being deprived of democracy.

What a crock of crap! For this spoiled New Englander to equate choosing to abide by state regulations (which are still representative and accountable) in order to cut costs, with the 50 million people in Iraq and Afghanistan who are recently freed from tyranny, torture, and genocide is an illustration of extreme cluelessness and arrogance.

[bill1952]

Did anyone catch #6? Please FReemail me.

[bill1952]

Such an attitude is indicative of how they put themselves in their current situation.

Blaming their own faults on Bush is more than stupid.

[Murtyo]

Yea, I heard that part. Surprised me that the editors of the story at NPR decided to include it!!!

[Blood of Tyrants]

What do you expect when their version of "conservative" is Olympia Snow and Susan Collins?

[Texas Eagle]

Is Maine a red state or a blue state?

[Random Nonsense]

Thanks for the pointers. Northern states in winter time remind me of Russia, that's why I like it. I remember long winters in Vermont and Maine a few years back, it's so cold just like Siberia.

Maine really needs to get itself straight, it is such a beautiful land, otherwise they will loose to the competitions, to a place like Nova Scotia for example. Cape Breton area is a nice land as well.

[Skylab]

Is Maine a red state or a blue state?

Blue.

[Recovering Ex-hippie]

Now. Now. Let's be sensitive here. You really can't spend a lot of time on local politics when you're busy keeping up with American Idol, Brad Pitt & chick of the week, and time with the environmental global warming group.

Besides, you don't want them to wait 8 or more hours to vote,do you?

[Texas Eagle]

Screw 'em then. They can all move to Nova Scotia for all I care.