Category Archives: Municipal Finance

Two Maines

Posted on July 7, 2013 by Emily Shaw

Thanks to the Maine.gov feed of Maine-specific BLS unemployment data, it was easy to construct a chart of unemployment figures over time. It can be hard to see this as clearly with all sixteen counties, so I’m just showing the … Continue reading →

Posted in Maine Economy, Municipal Finance, Two Maines | Leave a comment

Real costs to towns

Posted on June 30, 2013 by Emily Shaw

I’m so glad that Mike Shepard and Matt Byrne at the Sentinel/Press Herald are doing good work on exploring the budget. This is a more complex issue than a lot of the “yes/no” questions that voters get asked to consider, … Continue reading →

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Who Pays?

Posted on June 27, 2013 by Emily Shaw

Hooray! We have a budget. There are new, temporary taxes in place to replace some of the gap created by the 2011 income tax revenue reductions. As I mentioned earlier, this is an excellent natural experiment to determine whether this … Continue reading →

Posted in Maine Economy, Maine Legislature, Municipal Finance, Two Maines | Leave a comment

About those Accommodations and Meals Taxes

Posted on June 20, 2013 by Emily Shaw

Apparently, our eloquent governor is going to veto our budget and send our state into a shutdown because he swore no new taxes, dammit. But where will those taxes be coming from? Here, courtesy of the US Census American FactFinder, … Continue reading →

Posted in Maine Economy, Maine Legislature, Municipal Finance, Two Maines, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

The Governor’s Proposal

Posted on June 17, 2013 by Emily Shaw

As we await Gov. LePage’s promised veto of the state budget, it’s useful to revisit what it was that the governor himself proposed. For although the governor claims that he opposes new taxes, there is no way that the impact … Continue reading →

Posted in Governor LePage, Maine Economy, Maine Legislature, Municipal Finance | 1 Comment

Small is Beautiful…Part 2

Posted on March 9, 2013 by Emily Shaw

It’s the end of an absolutely gorgeous early spring day in my medium-sized Central Maine municipality (pop. 6,183.) Warming mud, running water, lots of sun and, in my case, a freshly washed and clipped dog. We all took a walk … Continue reading →

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Small is Beautiful…Part 1

Posted on March 8, 2013 by Emily Shaw

I have been spending entirely too much time today with the lovely dataset from the Maine Municipal Association’s most recent Fiscal Survey Report. This report provides the basic budget categories for the most common categories of expense across 218 Maine … Continue reading →

Posted in Municipal Finance | 1 Comment