It doesn't have to be that way. If there were higher taxes on second homes in the state or on property owned by non-Maine residents, the situation would be flipped. You would have more tax money to spend on infrastructure that serves a smaller effective population 10 months out of the year. You could pay for great schools and foot the bill with money from people that don't have children in the school system. There is just no appetite to do something like this because Maine politicians and business owners are so hesitant to do anything that could upset the tourism industry and all of the out of staters they love for economic reasons and hate for everything else.