Press Herald, MPBN quote Acheson in reports about Maine poverty
Ann Acheson, a research associate at the University of Maine’s Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center, spoke with the Maine Public Broadcasting Network and Portland Press Herald for reports about poverty in the state. In the MPBN report “Where exactly is the poverty line in Maine?” Acheson said the “state’s median income remains well below the national” while Maine’s economy continues to slowly improve and unemployment falls to levels not seen since the days before the recession. “There are an awful lot of people who are in a population of what we call ‘the working poor’ who have very low incomes, but it is above the poverty level,” she said. “But it’s really just barely enough to get by.” The Press Herald article “Some Mainers are still wondering … what economic recovery?” states most parts of Maine have started to recover from the recession, according to newly released information about poverty in each county. However, no turnaround has yet shown up in the poverty data from northernmost Maine, the article states. The southern coastal counties of York and Cumberland, the state’s hubs for business, would be the first to see job growth in the improving economy, Acheson said.