Maine needs jobs, but they are few and far between.

Maine claims to be Vacationland, but who vacations when they are out of work?

The only growing segment of our society is the retiring Baby Boomers. If Maine would pass legislation making retirement income tax-exempt, as many other states have done, Maine could lure thousands of retirees.

Retirees need homes, they pay sales and property taxes, dine out, buy automobiles, require food, heat, medical treatment and so on. Retired people are big business.

In Panama, if you retire and deposit as little as $400 per month of retirement income in the banks there, you get a government certificate that is good for a 25 percent discount on meals, goods and services. Millions of Americans have retired there.

If we did this in Maine, we would be outgunning every other state in the country. We could lure retirees here through a massive campaign, explaining those benefits, as well as the low-cost housing, low crime rate, lack of tornadoes, hurricanes, wildfires, flooding and all the beauty Maine has to offer.

The entire state would boom.

Welfare is a cancer to our society. Millions of retirees are rays of sunshine.

I challenge every state legislator to do the homework necessary to pass the required legislation to enable Maine to become the retirement capital and envy of the country, rather than remaining the king of welfare.

Is this falling on deaf ears? Do you need hearing aids?

Warren Packard, Rumford