I know firsthand how it feels when the very systems meant to protect you instead trap you. Only a year ago, I was caught in endless red tape while trying to secure housing, and now taxpayers across Rockland are experiencing the same pattern of neglect.

Our city went nearly 20 years without a full property revaluation, even though state law requires one every 10 years. The result? Assessments suddenly skyrocketed—residential values up 82%, apartments up 95%, with a median increase of 78%—while residents were told to take comfort in the fact that the mil rate “dropped” on paper. This isn’t leadership. This is corruption by neglect: a culture of delay with no accountability that always lands hardest on ordinary people.

And it’s not just Rockland. Maine as a whole earned an “F” in the State Integrity Investigation, and in 2023, our own Supreme Judicial Court found a public agency guilty of violating FOAA in bad faith, calling its actions “deceptive and abusive of the rights of the public.” That’s not hearsay—it’s binding precedent. When oversight laws are ignored and public records are slow-walked without consequence, we all pay the price.

Meanwhile, Maine admits it needs 84,000 new homes by 2030 just to stabilize the workforce that keeps our economy afloat. In a state so dependent on tourism, this shortfall is catastrophic. Locals can’t afford to live near the jobs that serve visitors, infrastructure lags behind, and young families leave because the math no longer works.

Here’s the deeper truth: If I’m wrong, then our leaders have been dangerously shortsighted for more than two decades. If I’m right, they’ve seen this coming the whole time and chosen instead to protect tourism and the image of Maine over the survival of the people who actually live here. Either way, the outcome is the same—ordinary Mainers are being sacrificed to a system that protects itself.

This problem is bigger than the leaders we “choose.” Until Maine enforces revaluation timelines, builds housing at scale, and puts teeth into transparency laws, the exodus people fear won’t just be a possibility—it will be our reality.

Courtney Cole lives in Rockland