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Poll results

Mainebiz recently published a commentary by 29-year-old Conner Drigotas, a Maine native who left the state a decade ago for college — and except for family visits, hasn’t returned.

Drigotas lamented Maine’s shortage of young workers, which he attributed to weak job creation and “big government short-sightedness.”

“Maine does not have the job base to keep young people at home and is not doing enough to bring people back,” he wrote.

“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.”

Drigotas’ commentary, which appeared on the Mainebiz website and in the print edition, drew widespread interest. His views also prompted us to ask: What can Maine, whose residents on average are the oldest in the country, do to build a younger workforce?

What’s the most important step Maine can take to attract younger workers?
Slash personal and business taxes (52%, 79 VOTES)
Create more jobs (14%, 22 VOTES)
Increase the supply of affordable housing (12%, 18 VOTES)
Expand health and education benefits for young people (12%, 18 VOTES)
Enhance and promote Maine's quality of life for newcomers (10%, 16 VOTES)
Poll Description

Mainebiz recently published a commentary by 29-year-old Conner Drigotas, a Maine native who left the state a decade ago for college — and except for family visits, hasn’t returned.

Drigotas lamented Maine’s shortage of young workers, which he attributed to weak job creation and “big government short-sightedness.”

“Maine does not have the job base to keep young people at home and is not doing enough to bring people back,” he wrote.

“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.”

Drigotas’ commentary, which appeared on the Mainebiz website and in the print edition, drew widespread interest. His views also prompted us to ask: What can Maine, whose residents on average are the oldest in the country, do to build a younger workforce?

  • 153 Votes
  • 5 Comments
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5 Comments

  • June 20, 2019

    Where does it say to only cut the taxes for the rich? It doesn't and if we cut taxes for businesses and individuals then the majority of the employers in Maine can afford to expand and hire people. Maine makes it very expensive for a business to come here and we are not keeping our young people here to fill the new jobs that would come. We are more interested in increasing welfare for people that should be working. Welfare is supposed to be a safety net, not a way of life.

    We haven't been deferring maintenance, the legislature just prefers to bond for it instead of including it in the budget as they should. They prefer to put their pet projects in the budget and bond for extra money to fix roads, bridges, expand broadband, etc., because they know the Maine people will vote for it. It isn't sustainable.

    Getting people some training and back to work is a much better use of tax dollars than paying them to stay at home. This money should also be going towards taking care of our senior and veterans population.

  • June 19, 2019

    To replenish and grow our workforce, we need affordable housing with easy public transit. We also need a strong college and university system to produce students with credentials of value for a job-ready pool of candidates. Finally, we need to attract, retain and support new Americans whose barriers to prosperity are language acquisition, affordable housing and social networks. Mr. Drigotas missed the memo that Maine is the best place to live and work. It will all be that much better if he engages in the exciting changes that are in the works.

  • June 19, 2019
    Until there is a first-class educational facility in Portland with expanded R&D activities and graduate degrees we'll be trapped in an educational model designed for the 19th century. As USM (or whatever it rebrands itself) becomes the "university for everyone" it will position itself nicely as a mediocre institution. The state should give USM to UNE.
  • June 19, 2019
    Stop with the welfare spending! Who wants to come home to a state where it seems their number-one priority is how much of its taxpayers money can they spend on welfare?
  • June 19, 2019

    I find it very interesting that a majority of respondents say cutting corporate taxes is the answer and cutting taxes on the rich doesn't help either, yet the data (real economic research) doesn't show that is what actually creates job and spurs the economy. It is also very expensive for each job created to cut taxes.

    People come to Maine for the quality of life and what it has to offer. With an aging population, large geography, small population (tax base), taxes will always be higher, and now more so as we have deferred maintenance on roads, bridges, schools and other infrastructure for far too long while we've tried to reduce taxes to create jobs approach that hasn't worked federally or locally.

    We know that investing in infrastructure creates jobs as people get paid to build that infrastructure AND we save money with less wear and tear on our vehicles, reduced heating costs (schools) and energy cost savings (investing in more efficient buildings).

    Here is a pretty balanced article:
    https://www.thebalance.com/do-tax-cuts-create-jobs-3306325