Recent comments in /f/Maine

SAMBDestroys t1_jbg1fos wrote

Reply to comment by Itskialikethecar in Are Maine taxes as bad as people say? by SameProfession254

I showed you their school board approved 21-24 collective bargaining numbers. The salaries you showed me were proposed but not necessarily approved. If someone in RSU-40 is making that kind of money, they have a doctorate and we’ll over 24 years of experience. They're still underpaid.

Edit: I said 22-23. It's actually 21-24.

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small_e_900 t1_jbfxk3d wrote

Reply to Are Maine taxes as bad as people say? by SameProfession254

Where people from New Hamster get a tax screwing is if one spouse works in Maine but they live in New Hamster, their entire income is taxed in Maine. They are taxed on income form the spouse who may never even set foot in the State of Maine.

The tax paid is a tax credit in their resident state, but New Hampshire has no state tax so they're screwed.

This works ok in States that have a State tax like Maine and Massachucets.

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zezar911 t1_jbfx2lb wrote

Reply to Are Maine taxes as bad as people say? by SameProfession254

talking specifically about local property taxes (i figure this is only case where it differentiates WITHIN the state itself), it's a combination of desirability (which impacts property values, and thus, taxes), services (low services = low taxes), and the local tax base. in most rural towns, the school budgets make up well over 50% of the entire town's budget (last year, the elementary school in our town was like 65% of the entire town's budget).

there are some weird situations though. i would describe rockland as a more or less "undesirable" town (relative to it's neighbors -- if you can afford to live in Rockport or Camden vs. Rockland, you probably do), which has very high taxes relative to neighboring towns (such as Warren, Thomaston, Hope, Union, etc.)... but they have a lot more services... a police department, more schools, etc. etc.

folks in rockland claim that there are so many non-profits sucking up services, that it shifts the tax base responsibility to homeowners. i'm not sure if there's any validity to that.

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