For University of Maine graduates, the month of May is a time of celebration. Tassels are turned, mortarboards are flung skyward, and diplomas are distributed and displayed. Optimism swells inside each graduate, alongside hopes that academic achievement will lead to a fulfilling professional career.

For Maine’s work force, the arrival of May is a more sobering milestone. May 1, according to the Tax Foundation, is Maine’s “Tax Freedom Day.” The designation, calculated by the foundation, is the date by which Maine’s workers will have earned enough to have paid their federal, state and local taxes.

Only six states have their “Tax Freedom Day” come later than Maine. The national average is April 26, which means Mainers give about an extra week’s pay to the government than most of the U.S.

This crossroads on the calendar overshadows recent positive retention statistics reported by UMaine. An analysis released last week by UMaine’s Office of Institutional Studies argues the “brain drain” is overstated, as two-thirds of 2004-2005 UMaine graduates stayed in Maine to work full-time jobs.

Of those, 72 percent of native Maine graduates were among those who stayed, while the same percentage of non-Mainer graduates (73 percent) elected to leave. It’s disappointing to see this latter group – who had already chosen Maine as a place to study – decide to leave for a career.

It all, as with most things, comes down to dollars and cents. Graduates now working full time in Maine earn an average median salary 20 percent less than the same job outside Maine, according to the study. For graduates in some fields, the median salary in Maine was half of what’s available elsewhere.

These salary figures are abysmal for a state which takes the most per capita in taxes from worker incomes. Mainers pay 13.5 percent of their incomes in state and local taxes, the highest in the nation, according to the Tax Foundation.

Maine’s local tax burden has been the worst in the nation since 1997, and among the top eight since 1980, the foundation reports. As the cost of higher education steadily increases, this woeful taxation environment should remain a major disincentive for graduates to stay in Maine for the long-term.

It’s hard to applaud retention statistics showing homegrown graduates receiving low salaries in a state with a notorious tax appetite. While the “brain drain” effect could be somewhat overblown, the basic economics facing Maine graduates – low pay, high taxes – are real, and frightening.

Graduate job market forecasts show Maine’s economics could further weaken its position, as a new study by the National Association of Colleges and Employers predicts graduate hiring nationwide will spike by 17 percent, with starting salaries rising 4.6 percent, according to USA Today.

Plugging Maine’s “brain drain” will take dollars. For as long as its economy pays uncompetitive salaries, and its governments take away a disproportionate amount of income, Maine will stay unattractive for college graduates.