New2Maine.com

I just found a link to a very interesting survey site called MaineBAC.org. Yes, this is a drinking-related site, but no, BAC doesn’t stand for blood-alcohol content in this case. It’s “Brief Alcohol Checkup” and it provides a simple, quick, and anonymous way to see whether you should be concerned about how much you drink. As a social drinker who likes his beer but only occasionally has more than two beers at a time, my risk factor for dependence is in the low range, according to the site.

At an average of only 5-6 drinks a week (I like a beer with dinner), I was surprised to find that I am in the upper third of alcohol consumption among men in my age range across the state (well, at least those who have taken the survey). If you’re not sure whether you should be concerned about your alcohol intake, or if you’re curious about how your drinking effects your BAC, take ten minutes and click through this survey. It might save your life.

As we’ve now been Mainers for just over a year, this month Amber and I have to renew our vehicle registrations (and pay the annual excise tax on our cars). Last year that meant a wait at City Hall in Portland to pay the tax, and then another wait at the BMV on Presumpscot Street to pay for the registration and get plates. This year, thankfully, we were able to use the BMV’s wonderfully easy Rapid Renewal Service to do the whole thing online.

For a negligible agent fee of $2.00 per car (plus, of course, the tax and registration costs), I was able to complete both registrations in about 10 minutes, including the time it took to run out to the driveway to grab the current registrations, insurance cards, and odometer readings. That’s less time than it would have taken to drive to City Hall and find a parking spot, let waiting in line at the treasurer’s office or the BMV! Well worth the nominal fee, if you ask me. Not every Maine municipality supports the Rapid Renewal service, but many do. Before you queue at your (sometimes not so) local BMV again, I highly recommend you check the list of those that do and see if you can save yourself the trouble. I’m glad I did.

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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