NH has no state income tax or sales tax, but they do have high property taxes. Everyone is saying that they come out about the same, but, it really depends on your situation.

I’m a relatively high income individual who is a renter, so I definitely make out worse than if I made my same salary in NH. Buy beyond that, salaries in NH are generally higher for my field. Portsmouth vs Portland is a big difference in software pay that I’ve seen, largely because of Boston spillover. Most jobs in Maine do not pay well at all. This state has an array of economic issues and challenges but the wages have to be the most severe, in my opinion.

Also, taxes paid, in and of itself, does not mean much of anything. It’s taxes paid relative to the services that those taxes provide. While MA tax is slightly higher than Maine, they get A LOT more services for those taxes. And the wages are multiple times higher in a lot of cases.

All this to say, I certainly don’t live in Maine for the money. I’m not complaining, but I’m not going to sit here and pretend like the taxes we pay relative to the services we get aren’t fucking shit, cause they are

In terms of pure environment, Maine is probably one of the best places to be as and individual when it comes to climate change in the US. It’s probably one of the better places in the world. The major concern for the state comes from infringement of the highly developed coastline. Outside that….not much concern. The state is obviously very heavily wooded, so the power grid is very sensitive, but it runs on the same technology of almost all of North America.

Hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, volcanic explosions, mudslides, name your natural disaster. Maine does not experience these. And while weather will become more variable, and hurricanes/their after affects will become more common and more severe, overall the major risk of these issues (which will become more variable and severe over time) is still very minimal.

Over the course of decades, there’s possibilities for a lot of things. Droughts, floods, massive and prolonged power outages, extreme storms, food scarcity, and a variety of other issues. These issues will likely occur in Maine. Likely, they will be perilous for many. However, relative to the global impact of this issue, this will be child’s play in comparison. Heat waves will become more common and extreme in summer. But they will pale in comparison to most other areas of the contiguous US. Same with forest fires, literally almost anything you can think of.

So anyway, what do you wanna do about it? I would make as much money as possible and move north. That’s what I’m doing. Maine is one of the best places to be when it comes to climate change, for the individual, if you have the money and know how.

Wish I could expand on this extensively, but I am with people, and I am going to stop. Last thing I will say is this has been happening for e very long time, and the evidence of climate change and it’s potential impact on New England has been extensively documented for multiple decades. New England sits between two major weather systems, one which moves from NW Canada down and east, and one which moves from the Gulf of Mexico up east. We are right in the window. We will catch more gulf air in the future, almost certainly. But whatever, at the end of the day, things will likely be very challenging. They will also be much more manageable than the vast majority of the entire globe.