Why is Maine a poor state? (foreclosed, to buy, school)

[mainebrokerman]

I finally figured it out,,,maine is poor, because we arent collecting the tax revenues from the illegal prostitution rings..

we should put that on a referendum....should prostitution be legalized and taxed in maine?
A Brothel tax intitiative

[maine4.us]

I think everything should be legalized, and then taxed. Think of all the law enforcement people we wouldn't need....yeah, right.....

[beltrams]

Originally Posted by Three Wolves In Snow

I don't understand this argument about the cost of living. I completely disagree that the cost of living is high here.

A few examples are that I can buy the exact same stuff at the grocery store here that I did in other cities I lived in and the prices are much lower. Consider that I am comparing these prices to what I paid in a city on the west coast almost 10 years ago, that says something.

My excise tax, registration, et al are not more expensive. Again, the west coast has Maine beat by a mile and apparently now FL is making things difficult and more expensive in that area.

My car insurance literally dropped OVER $1200 A YEAR, just by moving to Maine. I just paid off my insurance for a year that would have covered only three months in other places I've lived.

Electric is actually cheaper, again comparable to what I was paying on the west coast 10 years ago. Gas is cheaper, (believe it or not), than some other places I've lived when you do a comparison.

Getting work done on my car is cheaper.

I can find a farm and get my pets' food way, way, way cheaper than anywhere I've ever been.

It is totally and completely possible for me to be able to "make it" with HALF (or more), of what I used to have to make just to keep my head above water.

Life isn't just about taxes. When people talk about the, "cost of living", are they not talking about actual living? Are they not talking about the day to day stuff, the "living" part of "the cost of living"?

The only argument anyone has here is oil. Considering how much I save on every other aspect of my life here, even with oil, cost of living is lower.

Wages? One could say, "But the wages in Maine are bad!" I would say to that, "Honey, the wages are bad all over. This is an employers' market and they know it."

But let's get back to taxes...when I first started investigating living in Maine, I did a comparison of taxes between Maine and some other places I've been before. The taxes are lower here. A LOT lower here. I'm really confused where people come up with this idea that it's horribly expensive to live in Maine.

I agree completely.

I am doing most of my own home improvement, but one thing I hired out was a new roof. I paid $2900 for new metal roofing last year. Now I admit, my house is a small cape, but I just know that same roof, in the Boston area would have been $5000 or more. The seller had the electric service panel (fuses) replaced before the closing in which we agreed to split the cost (so I could get insurance.) The total cost for both of us? $300. In MA, a new main service panel swap would start at $500 to $600 anyway and nearly $1000 wouldn't be unheard of.

My snow plowing bill for the winter of two years ago (last winter I did it myself) was $175.....for plowing a nearly 400 foot long driveway for the whole winter.....Back in MA, I would have expected to pay $100 *per storm* for a similarly long driveway.

Housing? My little fixer upper cape on 55 acres of land with a large, 4 bay garage/barn was less than $100K two years ago. Back in MA...? Well, any acreage like that would be near a million dollars anyhow, certainly in eastern MA it would be well over a million dollars, but let's skip the land....a small cape back in the southwestern suburbs of Boston at the same time would be $300k or more, and with only a quarter acre lot maybe. I have a small mortgage that is way less per month than most people pay on a new car. (I don't want to go into retirement savings to pay off the mortgage for tax reasons, though I could if I wanted to.)

Yes, purchased goods in stores can be a bit more in Maine, and oil is more (though I'm using more wood nowadays), but most other things are much cheaper. Even my electric rate here in Maine (Maine Public Service) is about 15 or 16 cents per KWh last time I looked. Back in MA, NStar's "standard offer" is about 17 or 18 cents once one adds in the distribution and other costs, so even electric is the same to less in Maine by my math. Thus, even the "high" cost of energy, which is supposed to be Maine's weakness, depends on which fuel one is talking and on electricity Maine is at no disadvantage.

Then too I can (and do) garden, cutting some $$ off the food bill. I am thinking of getting a few chickens, and/or *maybe* a house cow. You can't easily do those things back in MA without annual board of health visits and permits. I line dry clothes outside. Some towns in MA *ban* clotheslines. Certainly most condo developments do. I have my own wood lot now, but even if I didn't, a cord of hardwood, delivered in eastern MA, is currently north of $300. I'll leave it to the reader to price a cord of wood in most of Maine, but it too will be significantly cheaper. Up in The County, it'll be much cheaper.

Even if I lived in an apartment, from what I see, rents in Maine are much cheaper than MA, in most cases we're talking 20 to 40 cents on the (MA) dollar. One bedroom apartments where I grew up in MA are around $1000 a month now while a dumpy 1BR apartment will still be $650 anyhow. In Maine, one can live in a mobile home on a nice lot fee simple for not a whole lot of money. Certainly such a home will be less than eastern MA, 1BR rents. In many places, certainly in most of eastern MA, out to Worcester or so, most towns won't allow manufactured housing like that to exist at all.

Maine might not be cheaper when comparing prices in a Sunday newspaper circular or the gas station, but that's only part of the story, and a fairly small part at that. Yes, salaries and pay scales are much lower in Maine. Well that's true, but many people in most of Maine can still live in a modest house on their own land - something that many people in MA can no longer manage unless they are of the "professional" or managerial class.

[moughie]

Very valid points, Beltrams.

May I ask where exactly in Maine you live?

[uga6]

Not sure about answer to that! Where I live now, a major urban, area is about the poorest population I have ever personally lived among and, to be honest, it seems so self-induced! It's like most people are victims of their own self-perception or caste or assigned station in life and their actions and habits ensure they will never escape. Sad.

[Revi]

Maine is at the end of the line in the USA. We are the only state with only one interstate highway for example. We are like America's woodlot. Some of us like that, but it isn't a really prosperous place. Still, it is possible to live here and even thrive with the right attitude.

[bangorme]

Why is Maine a poor state? Because Maine voters do irresponsible things. Most never met a bond issue they didn't like (free money!!!!!). They vote for liberal politicians and then wonder why their taxes go up. They vote for politicians that have made Maine one of the most business unfriendly states in the country, then wonder where the jobs went. Our productive kids are leaving the state in droves, a large percentage of those adults remaining are old, lazy, disabled, substance abusers, etc.

Maine is the proverbial welfare state, without anyone left to pay for it. Watch us put Angus King back into office, that will be your answer to why we are poor.

[AnnapolisSailor]

Originally Posted by bangorme

Why is Maine a poor state? Because Maine voters do irresponsible things. Most never met a bond issue they didn't like (free money!!!!!). They vote for liberal politicians and then wonder why their taxes go up. They vote for politicians that have made Maine one of the most business unfriendly states in the country, then wonder where the jobs went. Our productive kids are leaving the state in droves, a large percentage of those adults remaining are old, lazy, disabled, substance abusers, etc.

Maine is the proverbial welfare state, without anyone left to pay for it. Watch us put Angus King back into office, that will be your answer to why we are poor.

What you said!
Sounds a lot like Maryland!

[beltrams]

Originally Posted by moughie

Very valid points, Beltrams.

May I ask where exactly in Maine you live?

One town or so outside of Houlton.

[slyfox2]

Originally Posted by bangorme

Why is Maine a poor state? Because Maine voters do irresponsible things. Most never met a bond issue they didn't like (free money!!!!!). They vote for liberal politicians and then wonder why their taxes go up. They vote for politicians that have made Maine one of the most business unfriendly states in the country, then wonder where the jobs went. Our productive kids are leaving the state in droves, a large percentage of those adults remaining are old, lazy, disabled, substance abusers, etc.

Maine is the proverbial welfare state, without anyone left to pay for it. Watch us put Angus King back into office, that will be your answer to why we are poor.

Sounds like the 47% TO ME? Dang! they're here too? Well I am old, and at this point kind of lazy, but I'm not disabled yet, and the only substance that you could say I abuse is carrot juice. But then, I moved from Mid-Atlantic to spend my two pensions that are drawn from elsewhere in this state. I resent the idea that liberal politicians are the only ones who do this. The entire 8 years of the Bush administration didn't exactly reduce the deficit, and I voted for the guy the first time, but not the second. It was actually the only the second national politician in 40 years of voting who actually won, up to that time.