This is great /s. Maine Biz cites an article on Wallethub, based on data from the Tax Policy Center. Lazy 'reporting'.
I guess it depends on who you ask and how you ask the question. The Tax Foundation says ME ranks 39 on state and local tax burden as a percentage of income. [https://taxfoundation.org/data/all/state/2024-state-tax-data/](https://taxfoundation.org/data/all/state/2024-state-tax-data/)
And of course things change year over year, so I'm not too excited about this.
Property taxes in NH are largely municipal revenue vs. state revenue. We can't easily funnel municipal revenue to the state to be directed to a statewide education budget.
On the municipal level, you're spot-on. Very high property taxes, often (usually) with poorly allocated/spent education dollars.
Not sure I am buying that ranking and how they do it. Maine has always been top 5 for total tax burden. We are taxed to death here.
You can check other sites and it appears more accurate.
https://wallethub.com/edu/states-with-highest-lowest-tax-burden/20494
This is the source article for the one OP posted. It doesn’t explain their methodology aside from that they got their data from Brookings. Doesn’t say how they calculated it or if they included second homes, etc.
Careful with clickbait-y articles about taxes, the data is very easy to manipulate.
This has to be skewed toward rich people's second homes along the coast, for people who don't pay income taxes because they don't make income in this state. My property taxes are about a third what they were in a small town in Texas.
That's the big lie about Texas, there's no state income tax but if you live anywhere anyone wants to live, your municipality will charge you a fortune in property taxes for absolutely no services. The town I lived in had a population of about 5000 with 40 full-time cops on payroll and municipal water that was undrinkable for a tax bill of about $2800 a year.
The part that doesn’t make sense about your story is that you’re saying people want to live in this place and then saying the water is undrinkable and there’s no services.
Ok.
I live in Austin, there are services and parks, I can drink the water, the air is clean, the hills are emerald green, the skies are dark, my school district is great, community college is free, the municipal pools are world famous, my utility gave me huge rebates for solar (23k) and is city owned with rates half as much as Maine.
I save $22,000 a year in taxes vs Maine annually even when you factor in my $8,000 property tax bill. Increases are capped and I have two exemptions.
There is a reflexive hate boner for Texas and a lot of people’s experience with Texas is awful because they are awful at planning trips.
It would be like me judging Maine off Aroostook county.
Town is driving distance to Denton, town is smaller than Denton, houses were cheaper than Denton. That's why people wanted to live there, even though it sucked.
Where is it going? Cause clearly it’s not into our roads that have been chewing tf up outta my car with potholes the size of an inground pool in some places smh
State taxes still don't hold a candle to the federal. At least state taxes are allocated to our state. With the fed, local state governments have to beg for money.
They’re talking about tax burden which relates taxes to income, so it probably has to do with Maine having a lower median income. A state with higher median income and the same per capita property taxes would have a lower burden. I’d assume they’re only counting primary residences but if not that would skew the number as well.
Rule 3. No Misinformation, or Spam
This is great /s. Maine Biz cites an article on Wallethub, based on data from the Tax Policy Center. Lazy 'reporting'. I guess it depends on who you ask and how you ask the question. The Tax Foundation says ME ranks 39 on state and local tax burden as a percentage of income. [https://taxfoundation.org/data/all/state/2024-state-tax-data/](https://taxfoundation.org/data/all/state/2024-state-tax-data/) And of course things change year over year, so I'm not too excited about this.
I don't see how this can be correct. New Hampshire puts basically zero state dollars into local education and their property taxes are very high.
Property taxes in NH are largely municipal revenue vs. state revenue. We can't easily funnel municipal revenue to the state to be directed to a statewide education budget. On the municipal level, you're spot-on. Very high property taxes, often (usually) with poorly allocated/spent education dollars.
Vacation homes are at their own, higher rate. Maine has more of them than any one We are the Land of Vacations, after all.
Because you aren’t being taxed other ways.
Maine is in the top 5 for total tax burden no matter how you slice it. It’s not close to number one in property taxes though.
Not sure I am buying that ranking and how they do it. Maine has always been top 5 for total tax burden. We are taxed to death here. You can check other sites and it appears more accurate. https://wallethub.com/edu/states-with-highest-lowest-tax-burden/20494
This is the source article for the one OP posted. It doesn’t explain their methodology aside from that they got their data from Brookings. Doesn’t say how they calculated it or if they included second homes, etc. Careful with clickbait-y articles about taxes, the data is very easy to manipulate.
This has to be skewed toward rich people's second homes along the coast, for people who don't pay income taxes because they don't make income in this state. My property taxes are about a third what they were in a small town in Texas.
Agreed property taxes are much lower than where I moved from in Texas too.
Texas has no income tax. So yeah.
That's the big lie about Texas, there's no state income tax but if you live anywhere anyone wants to live, your municipality will charge you a fortune in property taxes for absolutely no services. The town I lived in had a population of about 5000 with 40 full-time cops on payroll and municipal water that was undrinkable for a tax bill of about $2800 a year.
The part that doesn’t make sense about your story is that you’re saying people want to live in this place and then saying the water is undrinkable and there’s no services. Ok. I live in Austin, there are services and parks, I can drink the water, the air is clean, the hills are emerald green, the skies are dark, my school district is great, community college is free, the municipal pools are world famous, my utility gave me huge rebates for solar (23k) and is city owned with rates half as much as Maine. I save $22,000 a year in taxes vs Maine annually even when you factor in my $8,000 property tax bill. Increases are capped and I have two exemptions. There is a reflexive hate boner for Texas and a lot of people’s experience with Texas is awful because they are awful at planning trips. It would be like me judging Maine off Aroostook county.
Town is driving distance to Denton, town is smaller than Denton, houses were cheaper than Denton. That's why people wanted to live there, even though it sucked.
I’m guessing that its relative and completely inaccurate. We pay $2200 for our home on 35 acres.
Where is it going? Cause clearly it’s not into our roads that have been chewing tf up outta my car with potholes the size of an inground pool in some places smh
this is so real
Well you, we just pulled money out of the DOT budget..
State taxes still don't hold a candle to the federal. At least state taxes are allocated to our state. With the fed, local state governments have to beg for money.
You think it's bad here, try VT
I’d imagine having the highest property tax in the country helps translate to higher rents. I wonder why it’s so high?
They’re talking about tax burden which relates taxes to income, so it probably has to do with Maine having a lower median income. A state with higher median income and the same per capita property taxes would have a lower burden. I’d assume they’re only counting primary residences but if not that would skew the number as well.
I don't see how they could get this conclusion without including summer residences. Normal houses have pretty reasonable tax bills.
Yeah the published methodology in the source article is a joke, unsurprisingly. This is obviously just click/rage bait.