Maine is offering to help pay off the student loans of anyone who moves to the pine tree state.
As part of a scheme to lure in young workers, state officials allow loan repayments to count as tax credits which can be deducted from state income taxes.
For example, if somebody owed $2,000 in income tax this year but repaid $1,800 in loans, they would reduce their tax liabilities to $200.
Most majors are allowed to use the scheme to reduce their income tax to zero, but STEM majors – science, technology and engineering – are actually able to get a payout from the government.
In this case, if a STEM major owed $2,000 in tax but repaid $2,200 in student debt, they would be entitled to a $200 reimbursement from the state.
The scheme has been open to those studying at Maine colleges since 2008, but employers pointed out that even if 100 per cent of college grads stayed in Maine, it wouldn’t meet the workforce need.
So to start attracting other graduates, the offer was recently thrown open to those arriving from out-of state as well.
‘We need to import people,’ Nate Wildes, who is leading efforts to draw people to Maine, said. ‘We need to attract people from other states for our workforce.
‘The message to employees is: We appreciate all you’ve done to invest in yourself, we’d like to put that talent to work and award you by not only giving you a job but by alleviating your student debt.’
Maine currently has the oldest average age of any state in America at 44, which is five years older than the median age across the country as a whole.
SOURCE: DailyMail, by CHRIS PLEASANCE