Maine Poverty Report

Poverty hits rural Maine the hardest, By Eric Russell, September 9, 2010, Bangor Daily News: “Maine’s poverty rate in 2008 was slightly below the national average, but the state’s rural counties are at a much higher level, according to a study released Thursday. The report, which was researched and prepared by the Maine Community Action Association and the Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center of the University of Maine, highlights the widespread impact of the current economic recession, said MCAA president Tim King. ‘The report doesn’t go into the causes of poverty and it doesn’t answer questions about what needs to be done,’ he said Thursday. ‘That’s up to state policymakers.’ One of those policymakers, Rep. Emily Cain, D-Orono, who co-chairs the Legislature’s Appropriations Committee, said the poverty report affirms what most Mainers already know. ‘The [recession] has made an already immense need greater,’ she said. ‘But this begins to lay a roadmap and help triage the things that [the Legislature] needs to address.’ The poverty report arrived the same day the Maine Heritage Policy Center held a press conference and issued a study saying Maine is the most welfare-dependent state in the nation. The center says enrollment has grown by 70 percent since 2003, while its poverty level has remained stable…”