Jeff Rogers, a business owner and employer, was born and raised in Maine and graduated from the University of Maine. He has spent his entire career working in the state.

Maine is a place people choose for quality of life, strong communities and the belief that you can build a good life. That’s the promise.

As this legislative session ends, the direction of policy is becoming clearer, and it’s worth asking whether that direction aligns with the long-term economic future Maine needs. But that promise depends on a functioning economy, and right now, Maine is making it harder to build one.

In a single legislative cycle, we have seen a combination of policies that, taken together, send a concerning signal: higher taxes on those driving investment and job creation, continued financial pressures and policy uncertainty surrounding an already strained health care system, restrictions on critical infrastructure such as data centers and a growing reliance on one-time rebate checks as a form of economic relief.

Individually, each of these decisions can be debated. Collectively, they point in the same direction: short-term thinking.

Take health care. Maine’s health care system is already under pressure, with workforce shortages, rural access challenges, rising costs and continued policy proposals that add uncertainty. When policy adds to that burden, it shows up as delayed investment and reduced access to care. If we make it harder for these systems to operate sustainably, the impact is felt across the entire state.

Maine does not need to become something it is not, but it does need to decide what it wants to be.

At the same time, we are increasing the tax burden on high earners, including many small and mid-sized business owners operating as pass-through entities. Those are not abstract numbers; they are the dollars that fund hiring, wage growth and expansion.

It is also important to recognize who many of those high earners are. In Maine, they are not just large corporations or distant executives. They are small business owners, operators and professionals making decisions about where to invest, hire and grow. When the cost of operating rises, those decisions change, not all at once, but at the margin, and over time, those decisions compound.

There is also the decision to restrict data center development at a time when nearly every industry, including health care, depends on digital infrastructure.

All of this raises a fundamental question: what is the long-term strategy? Because right now, it feels like Maine is making the same mistake many struggling businesses make. When costs rise but growth stalls, organizations can raise prices, cut costs or innovate and grow. The worst option is raising costs while offering less value.

That is how a death spiral begins, and we have seen it happen to companies repeatedly, and right now, it feels like Maine is heading down that same path.

There is also a broader point worth acknowledging. Like many who have built their lives and careers here, I want to see Maine succeed for the long term. A Maine where people can afford to live, where health care is accessible, and where opportunity is within reach.

The question is not whether we should invest, but how we sustain that investment over time. Because those investments depend on a growing economy, a stable health care system and a workforce that chooses to live and work here. If policy begins to discourage business formation, slow hiring or make it harder to recruit critical professionals, we risk weakening the very foundation that funds those investments.

That is the tension we need to address, not whether to support people, but how to do it in a way that is sustainable.

Because we do not operate in isolation, states like New Hampshire sit right next door, with no income tax, no sales tax and stronger education outcomes. People and businesses have options. This is not about people suddenly trading Acadia for Boca Raton. It is about something more gradual, and more consequential. It is about when the math stops making sense, and the next investment, the next hire or the next expansion happens somewhere else.

And increasingly, those choices are showing up in places where jobs are created. JPMorgan Chase has begun shifting roles out of higher-cost environments like New York to states such as Texas. This is not about individuals leaving overnight. It is about where the next job gets created. Those decisions happen at the margin, but they compound.

Maine already ranks among the highest in tax burden nationally, while our education system now ranks 41st in the country, according to recent reporting. At the same time, the state is issuing one-time rebate checks that people have already admitted publicly they are sending to political campaigns. For many other families, that money helps, but it is short-term relief, not part of a long-term strategy for growth.

If we want people to thrive in Maine, we should focus on helping them earn more, not just temporarily receive more. That means creating conditions for businesses to invest, expand and hire. It means strengthening, not potentially straining, our health care system. It means building the infrastructure that supports a modern economy. And it means aligning policy with growth, not working against it.

Because this is not about politics. It is about math. You cannot sustainably redistribute opportunity if you are simultaneously making it harder to create.

Maine does not need to become something it is not, but it does need to decide what it wants to be. People move here for what they believe it can be. Right now, that future feels harder to justify.