FARK.com: (6794959) Love the cold and snow and hate paying taxes? Has Maine got a retirement plan for you

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		Love the cold and snow and hate paying taxes? Has Maine got a retirement plan for you (boston.com)		50
		More: Cool, Maine, pensions, cold, snow

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10434 clicks; posted to Main » on 07 Dec 2011 at 10:00 AM | Favorite | share:

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50 Comments (+0 »)

Prof. Frink

2011-12-07 10:04:18 AM

TFA: =0)document.write(unescape('%3C')+'\!-'+'-') //-->

What do you get to do, go to boston.com's remote website outpost and fix their busted server?

Gunny Highway

2011-12-07 10:05:00 AM

I was trapped on the train for an hour with some "REAL MAINERS" last weekend. I am sure not everyone in Maine is a small town mind, arrogant, douche but I dont know if I would takes my chances.

HaywoodJablonski

2011-12-07 10:05:40 AM

Nice tag usage

urban.derelict

2011-12-07 10:07:59 AM

Prof. Frink: What do you get to do, go to boston.com's remote website outpost and fix their busted server?

Even their logo is screwed up. Look at it!

The Crepes of Wrath

2011-12-07 10:09:37 AM

Retire to Maine. We all float down here.

mexican bathtub cheese

2011-12-07 10:11:09 AM

Many people in the Northeast are stunned to find out how much further there dollars go in the South.

So Cheryl, what is it you do for a living?
...
You don't say.

hogans

2011-12-07 10:11:56 AM

Gunny Highway: I was trapped on the train for an hour with some "REAL MAINERS" last weekend. I am sure not everyone in Maine is a small town mind, arrogant, douche but I dont know if I would takes my chances.

What did you expect? "Welcome, sonny"? "Make yourself at home"? "Marry my daughter"? You've got to remember that these are just simple farmers. These are people of the land. The common clay of New England. You know... morons.

wildcardjack

2011-12-07 10:14:44 AM

If you could spend early November through late April elsewhere and still claim residence in Maine it might just work.

/Maybe spend a month here, a month there.

ivars

2011-12-07 10:16:16 AM

You mean, live in the place that was the inspiration for all of Stephen King's horror stories?

Demetrius

2011-12-07 10:18:11 AM

BitwiseShift

2011-12-07 10:19:16 AM

Only PA and ME don't tax pensions at the state level. BS. How about states with no income tax?

Gunny Highway

2011-12-07 10:22:48 AM

hogans: Gunny Highway: I was trapped on the train for an hour with some "REAL MAINERS" last weekend. I am sure not everyone in Maine is a small town mind, arrogant, douche but I dont know if I would takes my chances.

What did you expect? "Welcome, sonny"? "Make yourself at home"? "Marry my daughter"? You've got to remember that these are just simple farmers. These are people of the land. The common clay of New England. You know... morons.

I have lived in NE all my life. I have never heard people so proud of their simple lives. They were telling people they were WRONG no matter the subject (cable TV, politics, education) and were telling a guy who has lived in Maine his whole life that he wasnt a "real Mainer" because he lived in Portland now. Apparently waving to people when you drive past them makes you a "real Mainer." The best part is that I couldnt see these guys until I was exiting the train. They were in tie dye shirt, camo overalls, and scraggly beards.

What was most annoying is they biatched about Boston not being like where they are from. I would image they did it from the moment they left to the moment they returned.

/just annoying
//Im sure there are lots of great "Real Mainers"

Sweaty Dynamite

2011-12-07 10:23:41 AM

Demetrius: hogans: Gunny Highway: I was trapped on the train for an hour with some "REAL MAINERS" last weekend. I am sure not everyone in Maine is a small town mind, arrogant, douche but I dont know if I would takes my chances.

What did you expect? "Welcome, sonny"? "Make yourself at home"? "Marry my daughter"? You've got to remember that these are just simple farmers. These are people of the land. The common clay of New England. You know... morons.

~~From Gene Wilder's reaction to that, I've always thought it was an improv'd line on the part of Cleavon Little.~~

Scratch that...reverse it.

grinding_journalist

2011-12-07 10:23:57 AM

mexican bathtub cheese: Many people in the Northeast are stunned to find out how much further there dollars go in the South.

So Cheryl, what is it you do for a living?
...
You don't say.

I was gonna say...a 100 word "article" and you can't be bothered to read what you've written before publication? That was the first lesson they taught us- in 4th grade English class.

kingoomieiii

2011-12-07 10:25:00 AM

Isn't that the state that got so butthurt over people buying things NOT in Maine, that they make you pay sales taxes on things you BRING to Maine?

/not researching this
/already get too much snow

Macular Degenerate

2011-12-07 10:25:41 AM

Maine is already the oldest state in the US and Portland is the oldest city in the country. We don't need more raisins floating around up here thank you very much!

mbillips

2011-12-07 10:26:09 AM

I like the lede of "aside from being a howling wilderness of snow and ice half the year, Maine = Florida." I guess if you live in a place as cold as Boston, that seems like a reasonable premise.

Does anyone who isn't rich really care that much about taxes? I'd love to live in Vermont, which is a tax-happy, socialist paradise of beautiful, picturesque villages and zero billboards and Wal-Marts. But it's a farking icebox six months out of the year.

Arkanaut

2011-12-07 10:27:33 AM

If there's one thing old people love, it's snow.

kingoomieiii

2011-12-07 10:28:15 AM

Macular Degenerate: Maine is already the oldest state in the US and Portland is the oldest city in the country. We don't need more raisins floating around up here thank you very much!

I didn't realize you were talking about age demographics until the end of your post. I was already winding up a response.

AntiNorm

2011-12-07 10:28:23 AM

Maine screen turn on !!

StreetlightInTheGhetto

2011-12-07 10:38:15 AM

starlost

2011-12-07 10:38:50 AM

Gunny Highway
I was trapped on the train for an hour with some "REAL MAINERS" last weekend. I am sure not everyone in Maine is a small town mind, arrogant, douche but I dont know if I would takes my chances.

i was visiting in maine and went to the local post office and waiting in line for my turn. when i got to the window the worker looked over my head and started to wait on the locals behind me. he waited on local after local and only when no once else came into the place did he wait on me. i must have been there 25 minutes. i can understand a privately owned store having a gtfo attitude to non local customers if it wants but federal employees being able to get away with it is amazing. you could move to maine when you are 2 years old with your parents and live there for the next 99 years and still be treated as a outsider because your parents weren't mainers.

hogans

2011-12-07 10:43:23 AM

Gunny Highway: I have lived in NE all my life. I have never heard people so proud of their simple lives. They were telling people they were WRONG no matter the subject (cable TV, politics, education) and were telling a guy who has lived in Maine his whole life that he wasnt a "real Mainer" because he lived in Portland now. Apparently waving to people when you drive past them makes you a "real Mainer." The best part is that I couldnt see these guys until I was exiting the train. They were in tie dye shirt, camo overalls, and scraggly beards.

What was most annoying is they biatched about Boston not being like where they are from. I would image they did it from the moment they left to the moment they returned.

That's a bit odd, to say the least. I've lived in coastal NH for half of my life, and in central MA for the other half. I've never seen this type of attitude from anyone, and I've met plenty of people up and down the coast of Maine, from Sebago to Swan's Island. They've all been quite down to earth, and as you said, fond of waiving to neighbors on the roads. The only weird thing I can think of was a lobsterman trying to marry off his daughter right after meeting me.

Maybe these knuckleheads were from Aroostook County. It takes a special breed of mutant to live that far from civilization, though you'd think they'd travel to Quebec before Boston.

I wonder how they'd fill out this form? (new window)

NTRDR

2011-12-07 11:02:10 AM

grinding_journalist: mexican bathtub cheese: Many people in the Northeast are stunned to find out how much further there dollars go in the South.

So Cheryl, what is it you do for a living?
...
You don't say.

I was gonna say...a 100 word "article" and you can't be bothered to read what you've written before publication? That was the first lesson they taught us- in 4th grade English class.

Not only Cheryl,
but wear are the editers?

/yeah, I know

Demetrius

2011-12-07 11:07:46 AM

Sweaty Dynamite: Demetrius: hogans: Gunny Highway: I was trapped on the train for an hour with some "REAL MAINERS" last weekend. I am sure not everyone in Maine is a small town mind, arrogant, douche but I dont know if I would takes my chances.

What did you expect? "Welcome, sonny"? "Make yourself at home"? "Marry my daughter"? You've got to remember that these are just simple farmers. These are people of the land. The common clay of New England. You know... morons.

From Gene Wilder's reaction to that, I've always thought it was an improv'd line on the part of Cleavon Little.

Scratch that...reverse it.

You're right. And that's funny.

BlankSlate

2011-12-07 11:15:40 AM

I lived in "Real Maine" for 4 years...... Real Maine is not coastal Maine. It's very different north of Bangor and around the mountains. People there hate people from Massachusetts and all the "Flat Lander" states. (I survived because I was from another New England State.) Not all Mainers are small minded but there is definitely a goodish number that are.

Addressing the article, the writers miss the point that Maine is one of the highest taxed states prior to retirement. The only real industry of Maine now is tourism and that is not doing well in this economy. If you can think of something, Maine will tax it. If you don't "get in well" with the place you live you'll be buried with snow from November until June. Often, in small towns there is not enough money to pay for the snow plowing or street lights anymore.

But I have to admit, I miss it a lot. Now living in Philly and would love to find a place which is half Philly and half Northern Maine....... that would be my kind of paradise but it ain't for everyone.

Mumbler

2011-12-07 11:18:17 AM

Not sure where I will end up retiring, but it sure as hell won't be Maine.

Any place where I need a snow shovel is immediately excluded.

Gunny Highway

2011-12-07 11:24:48 AM

hogans: Maybe these knuckleheads were from Aroostook County. It takes a special breed of mutant to live that far from civilization, though you'd think they'd travel to Quebec before Boston.

I think that was it. They were down for a Patriots game. I think they were small town knuckleheads out for the day.

Jerkwater

2011-12-07 11:32:55 AM

BlankSlate: I lived in "Real Maine" for 4 years...... Real Maine is not coastal Maine. It's very different north of Bangor and around the mountains. People there hate people from Massachusetts and all the "Flat Lander" states. (I survived because I was from another New England State.) Not all Mainers are small minded but there is definitely a goodish number that are.

I grew up in southern coastal Maine and people there hate people from Massachusetts, too. To their dismay, they are being overrun by Massachusetts transplants.

I live in Mass now and when I go home to Maine to visit, none of my family members will ride in my car because it has Mass plates. It's a sad, sad inferiority complex.

Beavosaurus Rex

2011-12-07 11:37:20 AM

Mumbler: Not sure where I will end up retiring, but it sure as hell won't be Maine.

Any place where I need a snow shovel is immediately excluded.

Sounds about right.

cantsleep

2011-12-07 11:39:41 AM

Jerkwater: BlankSlate: I lived in "Real Maine" for 4 years...... Real Maine is not coastal Maine. It's very different north of Bangor and around the mountains. People there hate people from Massachusetts and all the "Flat Lander" states. (I survived because I was from another New England State.) Not all Mainers are small minded but there is definitely a goodish number that are.

I grew up in southern coastal Maine and people there hate people from Massachusetts, too. To their dismay, they are being overrun by Massachusetts transplants.

I live in Mass now and when I go home to Maine to visit, none of my family members will ride in my car because it has Mass plates. It's a sad, sad inferiority complex.

No, it's just that people from Massachusetts are arseholes.

Beavosaurus Rex

2011-12-07 11:44:03 AM

cantsleep: Jerkwater: BlankSlate: I lived in "Real Maine" for 4 years...... Real Maine is not coastal Maine. It's very different north of Bangor and around the mountains. People there hate people from Massachusetts and all the "Flat Lander" states. (I survived because I was from another New England State.) Not all Mainers are small minded but there is definitely a goodish number that are.

I grew up in southern coastal Maine and people there hate people from Massachusetts, too. To their dismay, they are being overrun by Massachusetts transplants.

I live in Mass now and when I go home to Maine to visit, none of my family members will ride in my car because it has Mass plates. It's a sad, sad inferiority complex.

No, it's just that people from Massachusetts are arseholes.

I always remember them being called Massholes.

krafty420

2011-12-07 11:48:29 AM

I went to Maine two Summers ago and it was well over 30°C (86°F). I would assume being from Nova Scotia that the Winters are cold, but manageable.

Gunny Highway

2011-12-07 11:48:40 AM

What do people from the rest of New England think of Rhode Islanders? I have never caught any shiat for it but I am sure stereotypes exist.

I am guessing we are seen as morons who cant drive?

Jerkwater

2011-12-07 11:55:19 AM

Gunny Highway: What do people from the rest of New England think of Rhode Islanders?

We don't. Mostly because you never leave your own state and there's nothing there to entice the rest of us to visit.

/lived in RI for 10 years.

zinny

2011-12-07 12:02:50 PM

Count me in. I love Maine.

Dr.Knockboots

2011-12-07 12:33:44 PM

I rather loved Maine.. lots of space.. great seafood..great fishing.. low crime.
I also enjoy 4 seasons, and have lived in Alaska, Mass, Colorado and Wisconsin.. so winters don't bother me

EnochEmery

2011-12-07 12:39:57 PM

Link (new window)

Lunchlady

2011-12-07 01:44:07 PM

Maine is basically the Nevada of the East Coast. Thousands of acres of nothing, only about two cities worth mentioning that are far apart from each other, the cities are dynamic and have some great nightlife but the boons are truly terrifying, the state was founded on a industry dependent on a natural resource that has now shrunk and instead relies on tourism,you can drive for 3 hours and feel like you're in the same place, and people only visit for less than a week and promptly go home to their larger state right next door.

UnspokenVoice

2011-12-07 01:48:02 PM

I have done exactly that. They currently tax the ever living hell out of me though. But... I've been everywhere. This is on place where there's as close to perfection that you'll get on the planet. It simply doesn't get any better than Maine (in the entire United States). You'll either understand or you won't, it's best that you don't. It's best that you retire to Florida with the others and you wouldn't like it here.

Mishno

2011-12-07 01:57:30 PM

Gunny Highway: What do people from the rest of New England think of Rhode Islanders? I have never caught any shiat for it but I am sure stereotypes exist.

I am guessing we are seen as morons who cant drive?

We kind of think of R.I. as the Detroit of New England.

Gunny Highway

2011-12-07 01:59:08 PM

Mishno: Gunny Highway: What do people from the rest of New England think of Rhode Islanders? I have never caught any shiat for it but I am sure stereotypes exist.

I am guessing we are seen as morons who cant drive?

We kind of think of R.I. as the Detroit of New England.

For good reason.

drsewell

2011-12-07 02:53:56 PM

godforsakenarticwasteland

Contents Under Pressure

2011-12-07 04:52:36 PM

All that money you save on not having state taxes on your pension will go towards a tiny fraction of your winter heating bill.

The WindowLicker

2011-12-07 05:39:34 PM

wildcardjack: If you could spend early November through late April elsewhere and still claim residence in Maine it might just work.

/Maybe spend a month here, a month there.

I have spent less than 30 days a year there since about 2007, and I still claim residence there. Not only that, but I also miss it quite badly, and I can't wait to go back (to visit).

Regulations and such prevent me from expressing my feelings about the current Governor, but I have been very sad to see the direction that my state has been going recently. The shutdown of the mills really hurt it badly, and then a long period of "leadership" has really taken a toll on the state.

It is great to visit, but having seen the world, I am not sure I could go back to living there.

bitchqueen

2011-12-07 08:20:16 PM

Macular Degenerate: Maine is already the oldest state in the US and Portland is the oldest city in the country. We don't need more raisins floating around up here thank you very much!

Saint Augustine, FL says get off its lawn. It is the oldest city in the US

Priscilla Curtains

2011-12-07 09:52:54 PM

Alaska has no property tax over 65 (65? 60? I forget) AND they give you money every year in the Dividend. If you are going to be really cold most of the year, parts of AK have less snow than Maine. I've visited Maine AND Alaska. Alaska is by far the friendlier state. By FAR.

John Buck 41

2011-12-07 10:58:03 PM

John Buck 41

2011-12-07 11:08:06 PM

Jerkwater: BlankSlate: I lived in "Real Maine" for 4 years...... Real Maine is not coastal Maine. It's very different north of Bangor and around the mountains. People there hate people from Massachusetts and all the "Flat Lander" states. (I survived because I was from another New England State.) Not all Mainers are small minded but there is definitely a goodish number that are.

I grew up in southern coastal Maine and people there hate people from Massachusetts, too. To their dismay, they are being overrun by Massachusetts transplants.

I live in Mass now and when I go home to Maine to visit, none of my family members will ride in my car because it has Mass plates. It's a sad, sad inferiority complex.

I borrowed my best friend's (hardcore Dem) truck recently. Had to put a 'Save The Ta-Ta's' magnet over the 'Obama-Biden 08' bumper sticker. Just because.

spdebump

2011-12-07 11:08:07 PM

Maine is the best state I have lived in. Starlost, Mainers don't look down on people because their parents are not from Maine. But if you moved there, then you are obviously not a Mainer and are "from away." I was treated the same way when I lived in Alabama.
But if you get cold living in Maine, you can fire up the wood stove or put on a sweater. Turning up the thermostat isn't much of a choice with oil over $3 per gallon.. In Florida you can hide in the air conditioning and sweat your balls off when you have to go outside.

Most every person in Maine hates Massholes. As tourists they have no clue where they are going, can't follow basic traffic courtesies, and make everything take longer because they are in the way. Bar Harbor to Ellsworth takes 25 minutes in the winter (unless snowing), and takes 45 to an hour during the tourist season.

As for claiming that Maine taxes everything, Most entertainment is not taxed. I know theater tickets, and ski lift tickets are not taxed. I am pretty sure that concert tickets and golf fees are not either. And if you can afford ski lift tickets or golf, I think you should be able to afford tax also.

The only think I can really think of that needs to change with Maine is the Governor. If you want to make fun of Mainers, then you need look no further then him.

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