Conner Drigotas
Updated: June 10, 2019
Commentary
Why this native Mainer moved out of Maine
By Conner Drigotas
I was born in Maine in 1990. I was raised and went to high school in Maine. I love my home state. In 2009, I left Maine to attend college in Pennsylvania. A decade later, I am one of thousands of Mainers who have left and not returned.
Maine is hemorrhaging young people. The situation is dire for the nation’s oldest state. Maine needs youth to stay in or return to Vacationland. Maine needs to attract 158,000 workers by 2025
I have looked for jobs in Maine many times. Maine does not have the job base to keep young people at home and is not doing enough to bring people back.
By that I mean Maine’s government is impeding job creation and stifling economic growth. The initiatives currently in place are simply more big government short-sightedness. We don’t want flashy government programs; we want Augusta out of our wallets.
The job market is being suffocated by the way Maine treats businesses. If Maine were a more attractive place to operate a business, more businesses would choose Maine. More businesses in Maine would create more jobs, attracting a younger population to live here. Augusta’s anti-business policy agenda prevents companies from choosing Maine and is holding citizens back from prosperity.
If I found a job that paid enough to justify the move back to Maine, I would still think twice before subjecting my income to the tax schemes and unsustainable programs currently supported in Augusta.
I am getting married in July, and I refuse to saddle my future wife and children with the “spend first, hope for the best later” fiscal standard that has long existed in Maine. The state Legislature has raised taxes to the third highest in the nation. I don’t want any part of it.
My goal with hard-earned money is to save it and invest it. If I want to live in the United States, I am forced to accept bad federal decision-making — but I can choose the state best for my family. As Maine continues to break the back of its middle class, more profitable businesses and individuals will find new homes.
Maine cannot tax its way out of the aging problem. In a state with a declining working population, you run out of other people’s money. It is only the most vulnerable who will be hurt by this growing government.
There is a chain of events unfolding: Increasing taxes, leading to migration out of Maine, while Augusta increases spending. This is not just bad policy — it is willfully ignorant of the natural end: a state in which only those who cannot afford to leave remain.
Thousands of Mainers have made the choice: Do I lose more of my income to a state considering yet another tax hike, endangering my family’s well-being? Or move, and only visit Vacationland on holidays? The choice is easy.
This article was prompted by my fiancée, who asked whether I would consider moving back to Maine. We have visited my family many times and, seeing the state’s beauty, she wondered why my brothers and I have built our lives elsewhere.
It is a difficult question to answer with just numbers. I love Maine. The emotional attachment carries a serious weight. In the end, moving to Maine means a tough job search, a likely lower income, and putting my family’s future at risk. Maine will always be my first home, but it is broken.
What can Maine do to reverse the aging trend? How can it establish incentives to attract businesses and create more jobs? How can it retain young professionals who have been leaving in droves for the past two decades?
The answer is simple: Empower greater economic and individual freedom. Augusta needs to get out of the way. The state must not create a bigger bureaucracy, but instead tear down the one that has already been built.
Conner Drigotas, a Maine native, can be reached at conner.d.drigotas@gmail.com.
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Anonymous
June 20, 2019
No kidding. I've just returned to Maine after attending a federal service academy, serving five years in the military, and getting an Ivy League MBA. There are about four Maine companies and three from away big enough to possibly need someone like me, but after looking for many months, I'm getting ready to move away with much sadness. Sorry Maine, I really tried!
Anonymous
June 20, 2019
I cannot agree more with Conner Drigotas’ sentiment. I grew up on Islesboro, have had to live and work in NYC for 20 years, and have forever been trying to find a way to move home permanently. My home town has done amazing things with broadband, schooling and infrastructure to improve my likelihood of coming home. However, the State continues to inhibit my ability to bring a small business home, including raising ferry rates for a 20-minute passage to exorbitant rates last year. Augusta could learn a lot from local community and other state policies. Step 1: Lower taxes; Step 2: Invite more tech and other businesses to Maine; Step 3: Educate appropriate to today and tomorrow’s needs. Lead by example.
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