New2Maine.com

Maine is #1 - In Taxes! I’ve seen this bumper sticker on quite a few cars since we moved up here. Until last week I wasn’t really aware of what they meant. Was it just property taxes (which I’d heard were high), or was the income tax out of whack too? Well, since we don’t own property, I can’t comment on the former, but the latter certainly is true.

After finally buckling down and finishing our taxes (federal, New York, and Maine) this weekend, I’ve realized that Maine’s income tax really is quite high. Amber and I ended up with refunds from Uncle Sam and New York state, but owing a good chunk of change to our new home state. It seems that ~75% of our AGI came from our time in New York (going from a full-time teacher’s salary to a part time salary dropped Amber’s income significantly). Some how, though, New York only accounted for a hair shy of two-thirds of the state income tax we’ve ended up paying for the year.

That’s right. 25% of our income ended up netting us 33% of our state tax liability. Looking at the numbers a little more closely, the tax rate in Maine ended up being just over 2% higher than in New York (something like 5.1% in NY and 7.2% in Maine). New York was never an inexpensive place to live, tax-wise, and I’d heard Maine wasn’t either, but I had no idea! I guess it’s time to adjust those W-4s…

As I reported in my previous post about Chip’s Subaru Center, She and I both own Subarus. Prior to a recent ski trip to New Hampshire, after which She would be taking my 2002 WRX to New York to see her family and some friends, I scheduled my car for an overdue oil change and a thorough pre-roadtrip inspection. When I spoke to Chip to schedule the appointment, I mentioned that I only ran synthetic oil in my car and would be willing to bring my own if that was a problem. He suggested that I should pick up a case of whatever I wanted to run and he’d happily use that instead.

We dropped my car off at about 8:30 AM last Tuesday. Aside from the oil change and once-over, I mentioned an annoying brake rub in the right rear wheel when cornering hard to the left. He promised he’d check it out. I heard back from Chip before 10:00 AM with a handful of recommendations. In addition to the oil change, I was told that my fuel filter should probably be replaced, and that my alternator belt was pretty weather-worn (I’d noticed some cracking, but didn’t mention it—I wanted to see just how thorough their inspection was). The brake rubbing was caused by a backing plate that was not seated quite correctly. All of this was taken care of for $110 (plus the cost of the oil). Chip also mentioned that the a/c belt was looking a little ragged but would probably last another 5000 miles and so could be replaced with my next oil change. Best of all, my car was ready by lunch time! Fast, thorough service at a fair price—what more can you ask for in a mechanic?

We’ll definitely be trusting both our cars to Chip and his crew in the future. If you own a Subaru and are within reasonable driving distance of Portland, I’d highly recommend you give him a call - (207) 775-2020. If you’re looking for your next car and aren’t quite sure what to get, I’d even suggest looking at Subarus just so you can go to Chip. He’s that good.

She and I both own Subarus. They’re simply perfect for the snowy Maine winter we’ve had so far, and they last a long time if you take care of them. However, taking care of them requires someone who knows what they’re doing. I think we’ve found that someone up here. Her 2002 Forester was due for its annual safety inspection and the clutch has been a bit slippy of late, so we asked around about good Subaru mechanics. Almost universally, the answer we received was to go to Chip’s.

She stopped in to see Chip and make an appointment before the holidays. He said he’d like to give the car a thorough once-over before he started looking at the clutch, so She scheduled last Friday as a day that Chip could have the car, give it a look, and tell us what it needed. About 3 ½ hours after we left it with Chip’s staff, Chip himself called me to go over what the car needed (to pass inspection), what the car could really use, and what the car would need in the next few months. I was very impressed by how thorough Chip was in his diagnosis, and by the fact that he didn’t really pressure me to do anything that I didn’t want to pay for right now.
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We took a day trip up to the mid-coast region Wednesday. We took along our dog Cindy too, and we intending on a hike in the Bates-Morse Mountain Conservation Area. Alas, the guide book we used didn’t mention that no dogs were allowed in the Conservation Area (although, really, I guess that should be somewhat obvious), so we ended up heading over to Fort Popham at the Popham Beach State Park. There Cindy got to play in the surf a bit:

Check out more photos from the area in our Maine Beaches and Parks photoset.

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Tonight is trash night on Forest Ave. For anyone who’s just moved to Portland, you may be a bit surprised at how Portland handles trash pickup. Instead of it being a city service funded by property taxes, as it was in Troy, NY, or a for-pay service as it was in Delmar, NY, Portland sells trash bags through the local grocery stores. You can get your blue Portland trash bags at the register in the local Hannaford, and I’m sure the Shaw’s up here have them in the trash bag aisle or at the register too. The five-pack of large bags (30 gallon, perhaps?) was $7.50 and we’ve gone through one a week so far. That works out to be cheaper than it was for disposal in Delmar, if we keep up that pace.

Portland also does a single-sort recycling program. Check out this video for more information. The big blue bin needs to be purchased at the DPW building on Portland St. and costs $7.00. I’m quite amazed by just how much is recyclable here. It seems like they recycle just about everything. Some things, like paperboard, I didn’t even know could be recycled, but I’m sure glad that they do. I feel very good about how little I need to put in the trash every week.