Maine Economy; Waiting for Godot. (Augusta, Waterville: sales, insurance, low crime)

[dmyankee]

Business professor urges more action to boost economy

This is about a speech given by UM Prof. John Mahon, held at the Maine Chamber of Commerce event in Waterville.

He likens the Maine economy to Samuel Beckett's "Waiting for Godot." I would love to get a copy of the entire speech. I love Beckett. I use the term a lot!

Any thoughts, comments, suggestions out there?

[Northern Maine Land Man]

I just gave him a call. He'll return my call and let me know if it's on line.

[dmyankee]

Way to go NMLM!

I'm off to work now, but I think I may have a good description of Godot for those unfamiliar with the term.

[maine4.us]

Maine is not alone guys! Florida, your counterpart but with warm weather is in the same boat. Many of our young people are not going to college. They don't want to move, and what do you need a degree for to take a blue collar job earning $10 an hour for? These kids aren't dumb, they are realistic.

We have a lot of people, but like Maine, most of them are older people. Florida has the nickname "God's waiting room." The jobs here are mostly service industry. Those people must have more than one job in order to make it, just like in Maine. Gasoline is similarly priced in Maine. Most people drive distances that are close to what Mainers drive to get to work. Since the wages are about the same, we are in the same boat. We are dependent on tourism, just like Maine. We also depend on forestry as a backbone of local industry. People don't think of forestry in Florida, but the largest corporate landowner in Florida is a paper company. Of course they have diversified into other areas, but their bread and butter is papermaking.

People have stopped flocking to Florida in the last year or so. Our schools in areas are underutilized, but overcrowded in others. School enrollment is not increasing as it has in the last decade.

Many schools in communities are facing decreasing enrollments. The reason, most of the people who now live in these communities are retirees, who sold a house in NY, NJ or MA and have a boatload of money to spend. Florida housing has always been reasonable compared to other parts of the country. Unlike Maine, Florida is a tax haven. No state income tax, no ad-valorem taxes on vehicles. No estate tax, and a reasonable 7% sales tax. Property taxes are actually reasonable than Maine. I pay almost the same tax here as I do in Maine, yet my home here is valuated at twice the cost of my Maine home. Everybody here gets a homestead exemption, not just a few.

Florida and Maine aren't twins, but they are becoming kissing cousins.

[MainelyJersey]

Nice post dmyankee...
sounds like he's issuing a wake-up call to our state leaders, much needed.
It begs the question...what IS the future of Maine? Is there any real direction, or are we going to continue to limp along, reacting rather than being pro-active.
A budget that seems to have come as a complete suprise to Augusta, scrambling at the last minute to cut $200 million.
A broke, under-enrolled health care program...clearly a failure, but will almost assuredly receive continued funding at the expense of a true competitive market.
Brain drain, tax burden, energy cost...sigh.
We're in dire need of some true, dynamic, forward thinking leaders.

[Northern Maine Land Man]

I guess the good professor is out of town. I'll continue to pursue a copy of the speech.

Florida was the oldest state for many years. Now Maine is the oldest state. That's because our young people leave.

In my experience the largest group of home buyers is returning Mainers. They leave when they are 30. Then when the kids are out of college they come home at the age of 55 or so. They always wanted to be here and would have been if we had a different government and opportunity.

Virginia elected a governor who promised to do away with the "car tax". He did just that.

[Acadianlion]

Originally Posted by MainelyJersey

We're in dire need of some true, dynamic, forward thinking leaders.

I think this is the crux of the problem and it is not necessarily limited to Maine. The size and shape of Maine government is out of proportion to the size and shape of the population of the state. We have the largest number of state employees of any New England state, despite the simple fact that our population is NOT the largest. Government produces NOTHING of value, so governmental programs and governmental budgets are just spending programs with no way to raise the revenue except by raising taxes.

Lee Iacocca has addressed this lack of leadership in his book. Worth reading because he is right.

I believe that we in Maine should have a unicameral legislature with two representatives from each county, but each representative would represent people from opposite parts of the state. Think how much different Maine government might be if the representative from Cumberland County got half his votes from the area surrounding Presque Isle.

When Loring Air Force Base was given to the State of Maine, the story that I heard was that there was an effort at getting the Maine legislature to take a tour of the facility. Loring Air Force Base, for those who haven't seen it, is an absolutely huge, sprawling airport with amazing infrastructure including a very large power plant capable of generating a tremendous amount of electricity (I think it is still idle).

The story I was told by people in the Loring area was that the legislature never went to see what this huge gift to Maine was, or was about. Too busy politicking in Augusta, and lining their pockets with "gifts" from lobbists, most likely.

But Loring was and remains a tremendous opportunity for industrial and economic devleopment to Maine, that has reached only a tiny percentage of what it could mean to Northern Maine.

Whereever the leadership in Maine is, it isn't in Augusta.

[flycessna]

Originally Posted by maine4.us

People have stopped flocking to Florida in the last year or so. Our schools in areas are underutilized, but overcrowded in others. School enrollment is not increasing as it has in the last decade

.

Interesting, I just read an article that more poeple are still moving into florida than all of New England combined. I beleive you though that it isn't what it was a few years ago. Texas is now the fastest growing place

Originally Posted by maine4.us

Florida and Maine aren't twins, but they are becoming kissing cousins.

Maine IS the oldest State in the country. However we are old, not because retirees from NY and NJ and MA with a boatload of money are moving here, though I expect there are "some". Maine is old because most of our young people are leaving. We have had one of the smallest increase in populations in the last decade...in the country

[mainebrokerman]

one of the first business classes, i took at college, the professor got up and asked a question...whats the one word that fuels this entire capitalist economy,? we threw many words at him, bot not the one he was looking for, then he wrote in huge letters "profit" on the chalkboard. profit, and profit motive, is the basis of our whole economy, profit motive, should be the motive, or incentive for people to work hard and live the american dream, the harder or smarter you work, the more reward thier is (In theory)
profit itself drives entreprenuers, and businesses.
this was 20 yrs ago, now "profit" seems like a vulgar term,,,one political party has fueled the flames of class warfare, always focusing on the lowest common denominator, and tax tax taxing is the answer.

most all business are small businesses, (over 85%) someone working thier ass off trying to make a living, yet again,,thier are forces against the business owners)

this is basic stuff, and why i say this, is because if you break maine down in factions, you can see why it is heavily regulated, non business friendly, and overtaxed in some areas,,
the state of maine is the largest employer...something im not proud of, this not only includes state workers, but as someone stated above, anyone that lives off the tax dollars of others, while producing and manufacturing nothing.
healthcare is also one of maine largest employers, again, the state and feds seem to be paying a huge portion of costs, and insurance companies, ,,,,,put the load on folks that can pay, to make up for others that cant.

maine, by percentage, is a big welfare state, again, another faction that votes a particular way,

maine seems to have an enormous amount of tree-huggers and environmentalists, that line up and halt any business, or industry, again, they seem to be a voting block of a particular party.

maine educators, from school teachers to professors, also lean a certain political direction,,

maine has been a democrat state for a longggggg time, i think its time we do have a business friendly governor (and legislator)
we need businesses to thrive in maine, to attract more investment, not to destroy our way of life, but to enhance it, we need good paying jobs, and health-insurance, we need to be attracting more BUSINESSES in maine,,

maine has a wealth of assets, hard working people, ..huge amounts of land, huge amounts of natural beauty and low crime.

next time you hear, a business decided not to come to maine,,,or that the "environmentalists" are making demands,,,on businesses,,,,dont join the maine media and cheer,,,its these businesses, that provide jobs and benefits to our workforce, or brings more people to the area.
and next time, you hear a certain crowd, or media, say they are going to tax the so called "rich" many of those dastardly "rich" are business owners, hanging on by a thread.
and when the democrats say they are going to raise the capitol gains taxes again,,,
that kills the incentive on small business to expand/renovate,(hire more people) or if they sell,,not to buy another business....

so, as we look ahead to maine's future,,, we need to be business friendly, and stop choking the present businesses.

[MainelyJersey]

And that is exactly what the speaker was driving home. Yes, we need to attract business to Maine...but simply waiting for them to "discover" us is not working.

Lets face it...it businesses were moths, then Maine is a 25-watt bulb sitting in the shadows of the flood lights of New Hampshire.