My family has lived in Bangor for four generations and I feel like a Hobbit living in the Shire. We’ve been protected by our isolation and have lived quiet, secure lives until recently.

My family has traveled beyond the Shire, and spent time in Savannah, Ga. There, we’ve found a great many kind, helpful, and caring people, just like here in the Shire. They speak differently. They attend different churches. They’re very pro-military.

What did we discover to be the greatest difference between here in the Shire and Savannah? The economy.

Electric rates in Maine are 50 percent higher. The very same Anthem health insurance policy here in Maine is 100 percent higher. When still operating, the property taxes paid per ton of paper produced at the Georgia-Pacific mill in Old Town were a whopping 300 percent higher than G-P-Savannah. It’s no wonder G-P closed Old Town and kept Savannah operating.

Clearly, Maine is one of the finest places to live, recreate and raise a family. However, it’s not the only place. We’re terribly naive when we keep telling ourselves that we Hobbits have to suffer ever-increasing poverty, ever-increasing drug use and ever-increasing taxes in order to enjoy the finer aspects of our Shire.

Mainers do not have to suffer our collective level of low wages, high cost of living and underemployment. Savannians don’t, and neither should we.

Locally, I’ve been a lifelong entrepreneur. I’ve lived the American dream by building up a successful small business from modest beginnings; providing hundreds of good-paying jobs; enjoying time to volunteer for dozens of local nonprofits and helping this area to be an even better place to live and raise a family

Every politician I’ve met down South is pro-business, pro-education and pro-jobs. Given my track record on environmental issues, including the recent endorsement by the Maine League of Conservation Voters, I’d sit on the Democrats’ side of the aisle if living down there.

There’s nothing I don’t like about Maine that can’t be blamed on the Maine Legislature. We know how to deal with the bugs, the snow and the cold. We know how to look out for one another during ice storms and look out for our less-fortunate neighbors who are suffering. Even the muck-a- mucks from away continually praise Mainers’ work ethic and productivity. We’re some of the finest workers in the world and deserve better.

However, it’s the Legislature that’s forced all too many job creators out of Maine to more business-friendly states. It’s the Legislature that’s set in motion the loss of 25,000 good-paying papermaking jobs by overtaxing plant and equipment – the tools of that trade. It’s the Legislature that has created an unsustainable health insurance monopoly.

Studies have shown that every time the Maine Legislature mandates increased costs to your employer, it’s your salary that suffers. When Maine doesn’t pay its bills, you pick up the tab. Maine’s nationally high health care costs have led to nationally low wages.

Every Mainer should have access to a job that pays a livable wage or better; health care that’s accessible and affordable; energy costs that are competitive; and taxes that are sustainable.

We Hobbits have a very long history of making tough decisions; of taking responsibility for our choices; of doing the right thing when choices are available. This Hobbit offers you a proved track record of job-creation, leadership and community service.

Your choices in the November election will determine if we continue our slow spiral into ever-increasing poverty or turn this ship of state around and generate jobs that will benefit all of us.

W. Tom Sawyer is the Republican candidate in Maine Senate District 32 serving Bangor and Hermon.