Jarrod Maxfield has seen first-hand how President Donald Trump’s mercurial tariff policies are affecting people in Maine.

Maxfield owns Necessary Technology in Portland, where customers are buying devices in advance of anticipated price hikes. He’s also a town councilor in Windham, where municipal officials are struggling to build a budget for the coming fiscal year.

In both roles, he has witnessed the growing anxiety, frustration and resolute choices that face consumers, business owners and community leaders as they tread uncertain economic terrain.

“There are big questions about how tariffs are going to impact towns and taxpayers,” Maxfield said. “All you can do is plan for the worst and hope for the best.”

Even as Trump on Wednesday reduced tariffs on most nations to 10% for 90 days, causing flailing stock markets to rebound, uncertainty persists. He retained 25% tariffs on steel, aluminum and cars, and he further jacked up the tax rate on Chinese imports to 125%. Beijing, meanwhile, announced retaliatory duties of 84% on American goods imported to China, and the Trump administration has promised country-by-country negotiations with everyone else.

Jim Jutras, owner of the Appliance Warehouse in South Portland, is concerned that tariffs will push prices out of reach for many consumers and lead to product shortages, including air conditioners and microwave ovens, most of which are made in China, he said.

“Natural inflation is one thing,” he said. “These tariffs could double prices and it’s not what we want.”

The Home Builders and Remodelers Association of Maine and the Portland Regional Chamber of Commerce are holding a news conference Monday to discuss how tariffs are impacting their businesses and communities.

“The Trump administration’s latest tariff increases are fueling economic uncertainty, leaving small businesses and consumers concerned about their future,” the organizers said in an emailed statement. “Unpredictable trade policies are forcing business owners and homebuilders to rethink their business plans, and creating supply instability, and consumers are sharing concerns about higher prices. The result is a growing sense of pessimism across industries, with concerns mounting over long-term economic stability.”

Many Maine companies welcome efforts to expand U.S. manufacturing and global access to Maine products, said Patrick Woodcock, president and CEO of the Maine State Chamber of Commerce. However, the scale and scope of Trump’s tariffs so far have been disruptive and undermined the short-term outlook for an already fragile economy, he said in an emailed statement.

“We appreciate the suspension of the reciprocal tariffs (and) a refocus on China,” Woodcock said. “(We) hope that this period of delay will lead to collaboration with our global partners on expanding Maine export opportunities.”

ANTICIPATING PRICE HIKES

Craig Thompson was at the Verizon store in South Portland on Thursday, trading in his iPhone 14 for an iPhone 16 Pro. He thinks Trump’s tariffs could help the U.S. become more competitive. Still, he replaced his iPhone now to avoid future price hikes.

“For a phone that cost $999, you don’t want to wait and pay more,” said Thompson, who lives in Hiram. “It could be a $1,300 phone next week.”

Price hikes haven’t hit Maxfield’s technology shop yet, “but we’re definitely thinking about it and preparing for it,” he said. “We often order directly from China, so if everything stands pat, we would expect the cost of parts and machines to go up significantly.”

Two of Maxfield’s customers recently purchased new laptops that run Windows 11 because Microsoft is expected to stop supporting Windows 10 in October, when computers could cost a lot more.

Maxfield keeps some items in stock at his Portland shop, including hard drives, “but there’s only so much you can afford to stock up on,” he said.

If tariffs have a long-term impact on the cost of electronics, consumers may increasingly choose to repair rather than replace devices.

“If a $100 hard drive goes up 30%, that’s still a lot less than a $1,000 laptop going up 30%,” Maxfield said.

That potential has Maxfield thinking about tweaking his marketing approach to promote the repair option to a wider clientele.

“Hopefully it’s something we can turn into a positive,” he said.

POTENTIAL LOST REVENUE

As a Windham town councilor, Maxfield is participating in budget planning sessions, where municipal officials are facing the same global market uncertainties.

“We have big projects we have been working on for decades,” he said. “We don’t know what’s happening with tariffs. We don’t know if federal grants are going to come through. Nothing is concrete.”

One of Maxfield’s gravest concerns illustrates the shared worries of Maine’s business owners and municipal officials.

The tariffs could drive up the cost of building materials, and commercial or residential developments may be delayed or canceled as a result, he said. Without the anticipated permit fees and additional property taxes from those projects, town officials would have to make tough budget decisions or pass higher costs on to taxpayers.

“We won’t have that revenue, but the town’s bills will still come due,” Maxfield said.

And he wonders if the intended goals of the Trump tariffs are worth all the fear and frustration.

“What is the benefit if they eventually bring back manufacturing (to the U.S.) and it has to be done by robots?”

TARIFF CHALLENGES IN OTHER TOWNS

The threat of tariffs comes as municipalities and school departments are developing budgets, a challenging process even without the added uncertainty of the tariffs.

“It’s kind of a wait-and-see mode right now. It’s a pretty fluid situation and keeps changing by the minute,” said Waterville City Manager Bryan Kaenrath.

Kaenrath said staff tries to forecast the city’s expenses, but right now they don’t have good guidance on what might change in the coming year.

“It makes the process more difficult,” he said.

In South Portland, city officials are finding the day-to-day changes make it hard to anticipate the impact of tariffs, according to finance director Ellen Sanborn. If prices for capital items increase significantly, the city may have to hold off or forgo purchases.

Municipalities could see significant increases in the cost of fire trucks purchased from a Maine company, according to Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who is asking the Trump administration to put in place an exemption for fire trucks that were under contract prior to Trump’s Feb. 10 announcement of tariffs against Canada.

In a letter to Department of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, Collins said K&T Fire Equipment in Island Falls manufactures and sells fire trucks to fire departments in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont.

The proposed tariff on Canadian steel and aluminum would increase the cost of each truck by $80,000 to $90,000, according to Collins. Maine towns with contracts with K&T include Allagash, Lamoine, Newfield, Sullivan, Surry and Somerville.

“The business begins assembly at its facility in Maine by attaching fire apparatuses to truck chassis before sending the trucks to a metal fabricator in Centerville, New Brunswick, Canada, to complete the steel and aluminum fabrication and assembly,” Collins wrote. “The business has operated this way for more than three decades.”

UNCLEAR PATH FOR SCHOOLS

The status of tariffs is also creating uncertainty for schools that are still developing budgets.

“A lot of the challenges we’re experiencing with predicting are the same challenges that homeowners or business owners have,” said Shawn Lambert, Brunswick’s assistant superintendent.

Brunswick school officials are anticipating $2,500 in extra costs for each of the two buses it is planning to buy, but they don’t yet know what other unexpected increases may come their way.

The school department has some big-ticket items — including a new generator at the high school — that have components that will likely be affected by tariffs. Items like copiers or other technology will also probably be more expensive, Lambert said.

He said the school department is making budget decisions knowing full well things could change before residents vote on the budget in June.

“The good news is that coming on the heels of COVID, we’re pretty used to uncertainty,” Lambert said. “We had supply chain issues then and now we have pricing issues. It seems very reminiscent of that time.”

BUSINESSES TAKE STOCK

At Selby Shoes Etc., a high-end shoe store in South Portland, owner Jeff Lechner has seen some modest price increases in shoes, most of them made in Vietnam.

“I don’t know how it’s going to shake out,” Lechner said. “We’re not going to have much of a choice. I think people will continue to pay for quality and service.”

Stocking up months ahead on brands like Taos, Merrill or Josef Siebel to avoid future tariff hikes really isn’t an option.

“We only have so much room and so much money,” he said.

Lechner said he’s choosing to be optimistic, believing that the economy will be better in the end, but he’s unsure.

“I’m trusting that they’re doing the right thing,” he said. “That it will open up markets to American companies. That it might bring prices down for some things and bring more manufacturing here.”

Jutras, at the Appliance Warehouse in South Portland, is less hopeful.

He’s one of many small appliance sellers in Maine who belongs to a New England buying group that maintains a two-month supply of merchandise, he said.

“Right now it appears we’re just in a holding pattern,” Jutras said. “The suppliers aren’t really hitting us with increases yet.”

About 70% of his merchandise is made in the United States, he said, mostly by the multinational Whirlpool Corp., which is based in Michigan and also makes the Maytag, KitchenAid, JennAir and Amana brands. But because other brands and many appliance parts are made in China and other countries, prices for refrigerators, ranges, washers and dryers will likely increase and their availability may fluctuate.

And while most air conditioners and microwave ovens are made in China, the buying group’s stock of air conditioners is already stateside to meet upcoming seasonal demand for 2025, he said. The outlook for microwaves, however, could be bad.

“Microwaves that cost $200 to $400 now could cost $400 to $600 in the near future,” Jutras said. “There might be a complete shortage of microwaves until they settle this.”

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