Why is Maine a poor state? (Bangor, Brunswick: schools, wage, property taxes)

[IHeartMaine]

*YAWN*

Yes. Maine is a poor state when you consider that we don't all own a $500K house that we owe $650K on and can't touch our neighbors out our kitchen window. Oh and yeah......and we usually keep our vehicles for more than 2 years.

*sigh*........wish I wasn't so "poor"!

[Northern Maine Land Man]

I'm running for school board. I stopped by the food pantry today to donate some fresh fruit and to get nominating signatures. School boards here are non-partisan so any voter in town could sign. It was crowded. People who have never been to food cupboards before need to use them now. The percentage of the national population that is actually employed is the lowest it has been since 1952. In Maine it is lower than the national average. Jobs are hard to find unless you make your own job and are self employed. Even then, the time between paydays is long. On the other side of the line there are lots of opportunities, but we can't use those opportunities.

The population of our town is 845. The population of the next town to us is zero. Same climate; same terrain; lakes; streams; woods; some roads: No people. Why is that? Government doesn't want people to live there. I know a man who lives a few towns over. He said he was going to live there. LURC told him he could not. He fought them in court for over two years. He spent a pile of money and he lives year round in his log home in LURC territory. If you want to live under a magnifying glass and spend a pile of money fighting to live your dream you can sometimes win the battle, but the war will not be over. They don't want you there and they will pick away and nag you. They will fine you for every little infraction they can dream up. Most people give up and leave. Then it's high fives all around for the bureaucrats. They won another one for their team.

Maine is dead last in the 50 states as a place to start a business. The old LURC and its successor, LUPC are part of that reason. All that truth written, there are still some small pockets of freedom in Maine. You just need to know where to look.

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by Northern Maine Land Man

I'm running for school board.

Hope you win

Nationalized testing and this new curriculum are very controversial.

... The percentage of the national population that is actually employed is the lowest it has been since 1952. In Maine it is lower than the national average. Jobs are hard to find unless you make your own job and are self employed. Even then, the time between paydays is long. On the other side of the line there are lots of opportunities, but we can't use those opportunities.

I understand that unemployment today equals the height of the Great Depression, if we use the same measuring methods without 'adjustments'.

... The population of our town is 845. The population of the next town to us is zero. Same climate; same terrain; lakes; streams; woods; some roads: No people. Why is that? Government doesn't want people to live there. I know a man who lives a few towns over. He said he was going to live there. LURC told him he could not. He fought them in court for over two years. He spent a pile of money and he lives year round in his log home in LURC territory. If you want to live under a magnifying glass and spend a pile of money fighting to live your dream you can sometimes win the battle, but the war will not be over. They don't want you there and they will pick away and nag you. They will fine you for every little infraction they can dream up. Most people give up and leave. Then it's high fives all around for the bureaucrats. They won another one for their team.

Maine is dead last in the 50 states as a place to start a business. The old LURC and its successor, LUPC are part of that reason. All that truth written, there are still some small pockets of freedom in Maine. You just need to know where to look.

I thought your buddy in Augusta said he was going to demolish LURC?

[IHeartMaine]

Originally Posted by Northern Maine Land Man

Maine is dead last in the 50 states as a place to start a business.

I find that hard to believe......many small businesses are flourishing in Maine. If Maine is #50 then the U.S. must be in pretty good shape!

Now if you are talking about starting a manufacturing or other prehistoric type of operation......they I would agree with your assertion. There's not much reason for larger corporations to locate here either (lack of tax breaks, lack of trained/qualified workers, expensive energy costs, etc).

[HighTechRocker]

Portland is a great little city and is fairly well off, as is the majority of the greater Portland area. Southern Canada, however, is very tough unless you are a telecommuter.

[mainebrokerman]

Originally Posted by Northern Maine Land Man

I'm running for school board. I stopped by the food pantry today to donate some fresh fruit and to get nominating signatures. School boards here are non-partisan so any voter in town could sign. It was crowded. People who have never been to food cupboards before need to use them now. The percentage of the national population that is actually employed is the lowest it has been since 1952. In Maine it is lower than the national average. Jobs are hard to find unless you make your own job and are self employed. Even then, the time between paydays is long. On the other side of the line there are lots of opportunities, but we can't use those opportunities.

The population of our town is 845. The population of the next town to us is zero. Same climate; same terrain; lakes; streams; woods; some roads: No people. Why is that? Government doesn't want people to live there. I know a man who lives a few towns over. He said he was going to live there. LURC told him he could not. He fought them in court for over two years. He spent a pile of money and he lives year round in his log home in LURC territory. If you want to live under a magnifying glass and spend a pile of money fighting to live your dream you can sometimes win the battle, but the war will not be over. They don't want you there and they will pick away and nag you. They will fine you for every little infraction they can dream up. Most people give up and leave. Then it's high fives all around for the bureaucrats. They won another one for their team.

Maine is dead last in the 50 states as a place to start a business. The old LURC and its successor, LUPC are part of that reason. All that truth written, there are still some small pockets of freedom in Maine. You just need to know where to look.

you should run for governor,

[Tug1980]

Democrats and their rediculous policies!!!!!!!

[cebdark]

Originally Posted by IHeartMaine

I find that hard to believe......many small businesses are flourishing in Maine. If Maine is #50 then the U.S. must be in pretty good shape!

Now if you are talking about starting a manufacturing or other prehistoric type of operation......they I would agree with your assertion. There's not much reason for larger corporations to locate here either (lack of tax breaks, lack of trained/qualified workers, expensive energy costs, etc).

Small businesses hire small numbers of employees and are often forced to make up for the corporate welfare that huge chains ship to their "tax friendly" out-of-state (or country for that matter) headquarters. They also often have to dance through strangling regulation that chains seem to slip right through. Corporate chains must have better lawyers.

We've sold ourselves out in the great US of A. We want it cheap, we want it well-made, and we want it right now.

We're getting what we asked for.

[mainebrokerman]

Originally Posted by IHeartMaine

I find that hard to believe......many small businesses are flourishing in Maine. If Maine is #50 then the U.S. must be in pretty good shape!

Now if you are talking about starting a manufacturing or other prehistoric type of operation......they I would agree with your assertion. There's not much reason for larger corporations to locate here either (lack of tax breaks, lack of trained/qualified workers, expensive energy costs, etc).

mainers use to have a reputation of being good workers,
in my younger years, while visiting family in a few southern states i was curious about what the job market was and talked to a few employers and they were ready to hire me quickly,, "we like mainers" was what two managers said- i thought they'd be the other way- being a northener and all

[cebdark]

Originally Posted by mainebrokerman

mainers use to have a reputation of being good workers,
in my younger years, while visiting family in a few southern states i was curious about what the job market was and talked to a few employers and they were ready to hire me quickly,, "we like mainers" was what two managers said- i thought they'd be the other way- being a northener and all

Most Mainer's ARE hard workers. That's why it annoys me that the news (and our own government) keeps trumpeting out "welfare state" reputation instead of focusing on those who work two or three jobs to make ends meet.

There are a lot of young people who work on the night shift too, so when I hear people complain about young people "hanging out" during the day instead of working, I like to gently remind them that we are not the 8 to 5 Monday - Friday society we once were.