Cost of living is very high
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6/19/2008
The cost of living in Maine is very high. I moved to Biddeford from Boston so we could afford to buy our first home. We had just had a baby and felt it was important to ground the baby in a more permanent home environment and to build a life for her. We had a time constraint of finding and moving into home within a 2 month time period. We have found that the cost of living in Maine is much higher. They tax the residents in so many ways, they even tax a lot of food in the grocery stores. It has been difficult going from a state that has laws in place that don't allow it to tax what are considered basic needs to live. So food and clothing under $300 in value is not taxed. There are other tax breaks including a tax credit on the state income tax form each year. Maine taxes almost everything. And it is not all taxed at 5%. Some purchases are taxed at a much higher rate. The cost of living is so high that I have to buy my daughter's clothes at good will and tag sales. I can no longer afford to buy any thing new and cannot purchase clothing for myself or my husband. And if you own a home there are additional taxes that we hadn't heard of before from our friends in Boston who owned homes. Residents have to leave the state in order to find high paying jobs. I have to work in NH in order to have a job in my industry. It is a 1.5 hr commute each way every day. The cost of gas has risen so much that I can no longer afford to keep my current position. However, I cannot afford to leave it either because my daughter attends preschool in NH and will be attending kindergarten there as well. I want her to have a good education and have not heard any thing good about the Biddeford public school system. The children I see playing in the neighborhoods I drive through regularly including are own neighborhood are rude and loudly cuss at adults in gutter language when they drive up and down the streets to go anywhere. I do not want my daughter to attend school with these children and learn to behave like trash. If you are moving to Maine and care about raising your child to behave intelligently, to act with kindness and to love contributing to the US society, then please think twice before considering Biddeford for your home. For now, I am grateful to have a place to live and a job. I will continue to commute daily in order to keep them and to keep my daughter safe and educated.
MarV | Biddeford, ME