Priorities in Vacation Land

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The Maine Wire, Maine’s only conservative newspaper, has been reporting on this issue for some time, but now even Britain’s Daily Mail has noticed. Maine’s two liberal rags have, naturally, kept mum.

Outrage over Maine lavishing $34M on 'Taj Mahal' homes for migrants

From the Daily Mail: "Residents and GOP politicians are slamming Maine officials for lavishing millions of dollars on 'Taj Mahal' homes for asylum seekers [sic] while the state's veterans and US-born homeless are struggling."

Residents and GOP politicians are slamming Maine officials for lavishing millions of dollars on ‘Taj Mahal’ homes for asylum seekers while the state’s veterans and US-born homeless are struggling.

Republicans say the Democrat-run state has spent $34 million on shelters, hotels, and ‘luxury apartments’ for migrants, even as Maine Veterans’ Homes and other shelters for ex-servicemen face cash shortfalls.

Much of the anger is directed at the 24 one- and two-bedroom apartments in attractive, three-story clapboard blocks that were recently given rent-free to 60 migrant families on the edge of Brunswick.

One of the new migrant residents called her new home a ‘palace’ compared to the shelters she’d been staying previously.

Maine families have to pay $2,300 per month for comparable two-bedroom homes nearby, which come with marble countertops, oversize refrigerators and cookers.

Senate Minority Leader Trey Stewart, a Republican, at a recent press conference compared the luxury rent-free homes to the Taj Mahal, an extravagant marble mausoleum in India.

‘It’s really striking to me that folks in rural Maine are being told to do more with less, while Taj Mahals are being built for other folks in more urban places that aren’t even Maine residents or Maine citizens,’ Stewart said.

Maine House Minority Leader Billy Bob Faulkingham says the state-run MaineHousing organization has allocated more than $33.2 million in emergency housing assistance to help asylum seekers.

That amounts to nearly two thirds of the state’s total emergency housing fund, which would be better spent on housing for veterans and the homeless in one of America’s coldest states, he added.

Much of the money has been spent on new shelters and hotel rooms, including nearly $14 million to accommodate 80 migrant families in Saco.

Another $4.4 million has been spent on hotel stays in South Portland.

Maine Wire: Maine State Rep. Deqa Dhalac (D-South Portland) has gone so far as to say Maine’s taxpayer resources ought to go to migrants before they go to U.S. military veterans because the veterans have the advantage of already speaking English.

Residents [already] pay some of the highest taxes in America. Maine has the costliest property levies in the nation, and only residents of New York and Hawaii pay more tax on the dollar overall, according to WalletHub.

And here’s a related, heartwarming story about spending other people’s money:

I’M GOING TO DISNEY WORLD!

Mom given $10,800 in taxpayer funds for poor families spent most of it on luxury Miami trip: ‘I wanted to blow it’

For the trips, Miller bought 15 new outfits for her children — one for each child for each day of the vacation — proudly telling the DC paper: “Every outfit they wore was new.”

She also spent $180 getting her hair and nails done makeover, excitedly recalling how good she looked for the trip.

“I didn’t have to look like a working, stressed mom,” she said of the pricy glow-up.

Then in Miami, Miller spent much of her new cash on steak dinners, new gadgets and toys for the children and a boat tour past some of the city’s most expensive mansions.

HAHAHAHAHAHA — here’s the best part:

She justified her spending by saying she hoped to inspire her children and teach them that if they work hard enough, they may one day be able to afford one of the mansions.