Reisman quoted in Ellsworth American editorial on small Maine communities

Jon Reisman, an associate professor of economics and public policy at the University of Maine at Machias, was quoted in an Ellsworth American editorial about the uncertain future of the Hancock County town of Osborn. Numerous rural towns throughout the state struggle with increasing tax burdens, mounting regulations and declining populations, all while trying to keep residents engaged in local government and emergency services, the editorial states. Reisman has written extensively about the “hollowing out” of Maine’s small communities, according to the editorial. “These towns like to think that they are maintaining a semblance of local control. But they really are reacting to influences out of their control,” Reisman said recently. “School budgets, especially special education, have overwhelmed their annual budgeting and tax income, consuming vast sums of money. Fewer young people are embracing rural living, their former farming and commercial bases are gone and their population is conservative, aging and less mobile. If the larger communities’ education needs dictate more subsidy monies, will smaller communities be able to survive on what’s left?”