[OyCrumbler]

Originally Posted by BobNJ1960

Malloy inherited a mess and made it far worse. While we are at around 90% recovered total jobs gained vs lost, during Malloy's same 8 years the USA is at 217% using the same barometer.

The 2nd worst NE state is at 140%. Massachusetts is past 315%.

Malloy was an absolute disaster-which will take decades to recover from.

While we had bad govs before, Malloy is in a league of his own as the worst-as evidenced by a below 15% statewide approval rating.

What do those stats look like when factoring in population growth among working age adults?

[BobNJ1960]

Originally Posted by OyCrumbler

What do those stats look like when factoring in population growth among working age adults?

not sure.

Various business mags routinely measure states, but based solely on ratio jobs added after recovery/jobs lost in Great Recession.

[East of the River]

I lived in Maine for a while. Main reason I left was it's hard to make a decent income there. Portland has a good economy but outside of that the rest of the state jobs are tough.

LePage per my friends in Maine and what i have read was a bit of a nut job. But he was well liked in Rural parts of Maine. Of course those same rural parts voted to increase medicaid despite Lepage being against it.

It looks like Lepage actually did alot of the same actions as Malloy cut spending to keep increases around inflation not higher etc. But He started with half the per Capita Debt that Malloy started with. Also should note CT has more then a Billion in our rainy day fund as well. On track for 2 Billion by June.

[JayCT]

Originally Posted by East of the River

I lived in Maine for a while. Main reason I left was it's hard to make a decent income there. Portland has a good economy but outside of that the rest of the state jobs are tough.

LePage per my friends in Maine and what i have read was a bit of a nut job. But he was well liked in Rural parts of Maine. Of course those same rural parts voted to increase medicaid despite Lepage being against it.

It looks like Lepage actually did alot of the same actions as Malloy cut spending to keep increases around inflation not higher etc. But He started with half the per Capita Debt that Malloy started with. Also should note CT has more then a Billion in our rainy day fund as well. On track for 2 Billion by June.

You are correct. Connecticut’s Rainy Day Fund is on track to be at $2 billion by the end of the fiscal year. That is great news. Jay

https://www.ctnewsjunkie.com/archive...ainy_day_fund/

[MrGompers]

Too funny,


This is the guy you idolize and want in charge ?


Maine Gov. Paul LePage made a racist claim about his state’s heroin epidemic on Wednesday, alleging men with nicknames like “D-Money” are coming from cities to sell heroin and “impregnate” Maine’s white women.



During a town hall meeting in Bridgton, Maine, LePage was asked how he plans to address the state’s heroin epidemic. The first step, LePage said, is beefing up enforcement.

“Now the traffickers ... These are guys with the name D-Money, Smoothie, Shifty, these types of guys. They come from Connecticut and New York, they come up here, they sell their heroin, and they go back home,” LePage said. “Incidentally, half the time they impregnate a young, white girl before they leave, which is a real sad thing because then we have another issue that we’ve got to deal with down the road. We’re going to make them very severe penalties.”


https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry...b0cad15e643549



LePage was Trump before Trump. These comments alone should have booted him out of the Governors mansion. The fact it didn't says more about the Maine population than LePage himself.

[RunD1987]

Love Portland!

Though you can tell Portland has been affected by Boston. Housing prices are high and depending on which suburbs you are living is high.

Do feel the Coast of Maine has high home values. Thinking this is due to tourism, retirees, and a lot of people moving from lower New England to the Maine Coast. Causing there to be a lot of demand and also a retreat for a lot of individuals with high incomes.

However, farther from Boston and the Coast you go the home values drop. Then jobs become scarce. Many jobs are those living off the land, minimum wage jobs, entrepreneurs, some blue & pink collar jobs. For many their incomes are low so it makes it I would assume difficult to afford health insurance and other necessities.

I mean I do agree think Medicaid expansion is a start for Maine. Also wonder if they will lower the income tax and expand the income tax exemption. Think Maine could do away with the Sales Tax. Though I hope starting fresh with a strong Democratic and Independent base can come up with out of the box thinking to lessen the burden on those with low incomes. However, also create a balance budget and continue to expand on saving money. Work on property tax reduction and expanding with affordable housing developments.

If Maine can do this think a lot of New England States can learn from Maine.

[ryanthegoldengod]

Yeah I mean size, demographics, education, leading industries.........two completely different states. It's not quite as ridiculous as comparing us with Florida but it's in the ballpark.

[OyCrumbler]

Outside of the deep south, Maine is one of the most federally dependent states in the Union while CT is one of the least and this has been true for decades if not centuries. Maine generally gets a significant amount more federal spending dollars per federal tax receipt dollars while CT gives significantly more federal tax revenue dollars per federal spending dollars. While CT politicians on the federal level should probably be more aggressive in getting federal expenditure to fund myriad things, we can’t all be in states that are “welfare states” the way Maine is because someone needs to be the reasonable adult and put some food on the table (I’d vote Mississippi because they owe big time, but then I’m afraid we’d all just starve, or even worse, turn to cannibalism).

The odd thing is, even with such a favorable ratio, Maine still has increasing poverty and hunger levels and its employment opportunities aren’t all that great and young Mainers with college degrees generally have to move elsewhere for decent jobs, and they’ve got a govenor who makes a lot of dbag comments to boot. Yea, everyone should just be green with envy. Well, they’ve got real nice mountains, scenic coasts, and Portland is a gem of a city.

Mind you, I don’t think we should move to a system where every state gets the same ratio as things change from state to state and time to time and we should hope that all our fellow citizens have a good quality of life and opportunities. However, what strikes me as grotesque is the ****ty hypocrisy of people who talk **** while they suckle on the teat. Close your goddamn pieholes when you eat, that’s rude!

[East of the River]

Portland really functions well, and when I mention cities in New England to younger people I work with the only two cities that really interest them tend to be Boston and Portland. I have a few friends up there still but not many, most ended up elsewhere do to jobs.
Where I lived (Near Canada) jobs were really tough. Most people I know did not have normal jobs. Many did multiple jobs as well as gig type of work (despite this being well before the gig economy thing). The only people with really stable jobs tended to work for state or local government, Teachers, DOT workers etc. Lots of people had different jobs from season to season. Healthcare was a big issue. Funny talking with a coworker recently who also lived in rural Maine (he has family there still) he said the same thing. People tipping trees in the winter raking blueberries in the fall etc.

[GeoffD]

Originally Posted by East of the River

Portland really functions well, and when I mention cities in New England to younger people I work with the only two cities that really interest them tend to be Boston and Portland. I have a few friends up there still but not many, most ended up elsewhere do to jobs.
Where I lived (Near Canada) jobs were really tough. Most people I know did not have normal jobs. Many did multiple jobs as well as gig type of work (despite this being well before the gig economy thing). The only people with really stable jobs tended to work for state or local government, Teachers, DOT workers etc. Lots of people had different jobs from season to season. Healthcare was a big issue. Funny talking with a coworker recently who also lived in rural Maine (he has family there still) he said the same thing. People tipping trees in the winter raking blueberries in the fall etc.

It's a stretch calling Portland a "city". It's only 66,000 people. Without summer tourism and the big pile of out-of-state vacation home money injected into the local economy, it would be an economic wasteland. You can't make it on a flyover country economy where the only jobs are public sector and health care.


Burlington, Vermont is the other Portland-like place. The difference is that Burlington actually has some 'real' jobs at the former IBM plant in Essex Junction. It's not just public sector and health care jobs.