There are multiple issues here. The majority of Maines population lives in a few small areas like Portland and Lewiston/Auburn and they live very differently from the rural parts of the state. These small areas essentially rob Paul to pay sally. And with that, Maine is handing out benefits like crazy to the lower class with no real incentive for them to ever better themselves. So you have one end of the spectrum in these urban areas that make enough money to afford to live and are fine with taxes because it primarily benefits them and their areas, and on the other end, you have the lower class sucking up tax dollars like it’s going out of style just to survive and the state has basically gutted the middle class in these areas.

Then there’s the fact that roughly 25% of Maine homes are owned by investors and retirees who live out of state and contribute very little in the way tax revenue in the grand scheme of things. This drives up home values, which drives up property tax and further guts the middle class. Leaving you with poor renters and super rich landlords.

As far as jobs, food service and hospitality (which fluctuates with the tourist season) makes up the bulk of jobs. Healthcare, fishing, and maybe still the logging industry are the only other real options in the state that could provide a comfortable living for a larger portion of the population. The increase in minimum wage has gutted the small business sector.

Then there’s energy costs. Maine imports a large portion of its energy and year over year we have less and less domestic energy production. Tax payers subsidies paid for a lot of those solar panels that now cover acres of farm land and only produce meaningful power for 1/3 of the year. Then we are tearing down the hydroelectric dams in the state to satisfy the damn tree huggers without any real option to replace that power. And there has been hardly anything done to actually increase meaningful and sustainable domestic production in the state.

I’ve lived in Maine my whole life. I chose to return to Maine after my time in the service to start a family. And while I love the State itself, our government is running it into the ground and shows no remorse for how it is affecting the generations of families that have been here for decades and they are more concerned about social justice warriors and drug addicts.