[JayCT]

Originally Posted by BobNJ1960

No one gives up anything. Most who relocated made more, as whatever they last earned is the benchmark.
I am sure kidyankee or Stephy can attest to that, and I apologie for forgetting the many others who have left btw.

In addition, as sites like salary.com show, the full COL here is at least as much "more" as any gross pay is.

Neither Kidyankee or Stephy moved to low cost areas. Kidyankee went to the pricey northern Virginia suburbs of Washington DC. Stephy went to California, hardly a place known for low costs or taxes. Not sure who else you are thinking of.

As the analysis posted here proved and that was confirmed by Mr. Lyman Stone in his email to me, the higher salaries paid here more than compensate for the higher cost of living including taxes. I know several people that considered moving to these lower cost areas and found that the salaries they would be paid were lower than here. They were shocked to find too that the cost of homes near major employment centers were no less than places here outside Fairfield County. They also found, just like me, that taxes in comparable communities weren’t that much less than we pay here. I have posted numerous examples of this comparing homes and their actual taxes paid that showed this.

Whether you like it or not, places that are cheaper are cheaper for a good reason and that is less employment opportunities and less services. That is how our free-market system works. Jay

[BobNJ1960]

Mr. Stone's email to the other poster backed the other poster's position. I do like the fact he responded to both of you, but the replies were not consistent btw.

Lower cost areas keep their government costs under control. That is why they are cheaper. Ct chose to overcompensate theirs (total package with benefits = overcompensated, as our state workers would not obtain equal comp in the private sector given what they bring to the table). The overcompensation is shown well by the very small state employee voluntary attrition rate.

[BobNJ1960]

Originally Posted by JGBigGreen

I clearly stated I asked if it included property taxes. Did you differentiate that in your query to distinguish between property taxes being included versus income taxes? It would make sense that it included income tax as CT's income tax is quite reasonable. I did not say income taxes, I pointed out that it doesn't include the ridiculously high property tax burden and the author confirmed that.

James <jgbiggreen@*****.com>

Wed, May 22, 5:48 PM (17 hours ago)




to lymanrstone


Mr. Lyman,

Good afternoon. I'm writing with an question regarding an old article you wrote on the Tax Foundation's site. My question, if you're willing to answer, is does the comparison and ranking of state's using the BEA RPP figures include property taxes for each state to calculate the adjusted real income? I'm curious as I'm of the belief that the ranking only looks at RPP and not taxes while someone else is insisting it must include property tax comparison's as it is published on the Tax Foundation site.


Many thanks for any clarification you can provide.


Here is the article I'm writing about: https://taxfoundation.org/new-state-...e-differences/


New State-Level Price Data Shows Smaller State Real Income Differences | Tax Foundation
taxfoundation.org
About Us. The Tax Foundation is the nation’s leading independent tax policy nonprofit. Since 1937, our principled research, insightful analysis, and engaged experts have informed smarter tax policy at the federal, state, and global levels.



Respectfully,

James









Lyman Stone

Wed, May 22, 9:20 PM (13 hours ago)











It does not include property taxes, no.

Thank you for posting his reply.

[kidyankee764]

Originally Posted by JayCT

Neither Kidyankee or Stephy moved to low cost areas. Kidyankee went to the pricey northern Virginia suburbs of Washington DC. Stephy went to California, hardly a place known for low costs or taxes. Not sure who else you are thinking of.

As the analysis posted here proved and that was confirmed by Mr. Lyman Stone in his email to me, the higher salaries paid here more than compensate for the higher cost of living including taxes. I know several people that considered moving to these lower cost areas and found that the salaries they would be paid were lower than here. They were shocked to find too that the cost of homes near major employment centers were no less than places here outside Fairfield County. They also found, just like me, that taxes in comparable communities weren’t that much less than we pay here. I have posted numerous examples of this comparing homes and their actual taxes paid that showed this.

Whether you like it or not, places that are cheaper are cheaper for a good reason and that is less employment opportunities and less services. That is how our free-market system works. Jay

That’s correct that we moved to an expensive area, but overall we still have more money in our pocket thanks to a lower tax rate. Our move was more that we wanted/needed to be closer to amenities. For 500k, we were able to get a nice home just a few miles outside of a world class city, and an Uber ride to a major international airport. Our community is similar in price to Ridgefield, but instead of being 75 minutes outside of a major city, we’re 20 minutes away. Big difference! But overall, I found taxes and utilities to be a decent amount less here.

Jay is right that cheaper places are cheaper for a reason. But that’s only true for home prices - not taxes.

Originally Posted by Lincolnian

So what's the point? We know where we are. It's expensive to live here. On the other hand middle class people make good money. The often cited states of Florida and the Carolinas are not as cheap as people make them out to be. South Florida is as expensive if not more expensive than many parts of Connecticut. Most comparable jobs don't pay as well. People I know that live there talk about high home and auto insurance costs, maintenance costs, security costs, pest control, and many desirable homes are at the same price or higher than comparable in CT. The same is true with desirable areas of the Carolinas.

South FL is in our future and you’re correct that it’s gotten very expensive. I’m shocked at the prices in Palm Beach, Broward and Miami Dade. East of 95, you’re paying 750k+ in many areas for a modest home, and homes that need work start at 3-400k. You can go further west to Weston or Parkland and get a nice home for a bit cheaper, but not much!

I don’t agree re Carolinas. You can still get quite the bang for your buck in those states away from coastal touristy neighborhoods.

[BobNJ1960]

Originally Posted by kidyankee764

Jay is right that cheaper places are cheaper for a reason. But that’s only true for home prices - not taxes.



South FL is in our future and you’re correct that it’s gotten very expensive. I’m shocked at the prices in Palm Beach, Broward and Miami Dade. East of 95, you’re paying 750k+ in many areas for a modest home, and homes that need work start at 3-400k. You can go further west to Weston or Parkland and get a nice home for a bit cheaper, but not much!

I don’t agree re Carolinas. You can still get quite the bang for your buck in those states away from coastal touristy neighborhoods.

Agree on all points.

Taxes are a factor of running government efficiently and not overpaying staff as low cost states avoid doing, or overpaying staff and having too many as high tax states do.

I also agree with your Carolina point. I know several there from Ct originally, still getting tremendous value for their money, and each are upper middle class income levels (no matter what state they lived in).

Florida has had far more price creep.

I am also familiar with your location, and you chose very wisely. 20 minutes to terrific cities is awesome.

[kidyankee764]

Originally Posted by BobNJ1960

Agree on all points.

Taxes are a factor of running government efficiently and not overpaying staff as low cost states avoid doing, or overpaying staff and having too many as high tax states do.

I also agree with your Carolina point. I know several there from Ct originally, still getting tremendous value for their money, and each are upper middle class income levels (no matter what state they lived in).

Florida has had far more price creep.

I am also familiar with your location, and you chose very wisely. 20 minutes to terrific cities is awesome.

Not only that, but people here have a sense of pride for their state that was sorely lacking in CT. In all my years in CT, nobody ever seemed happy to call it home. I was, and do miss it for many reasons.

I think the media is a big driver of this.

[JGBigGreen]

You are very welcome.

Originally Posted by BobNJ1960

Thank you for posting his reply.

[BobNJ1960]

Originally Posted by kidyankee764

Not only that, but people here have a sense of pride for their state that was sorely lacking in CT. In all my years in CT, nobody ever seemed happy to call it home. I was, and do miss it for many reasons.

IMO Ct residents once did show pride decades back, but the reality is it takes good economic news events to fuel it. I can't remember the last 500 employee or larger corp to relocate to Ct from a truly distant state, excluding neighbors.

I still recall the excitement in Tn when we landed hqs like LP and Nissan from California. It was the main conversation at work for days. One of our execs happened to be at breakfast that day with business leaders with gov as speaker, who quipped "You may want to watch the afternoon press conference today"! He couldn't admit who it was about, but it was a well leaked secret. The excitement was intense. We played it at work in our break rooms.

We need a good MAJOR economic news event in Ct , not from a long-term Ct corp getting a contract, not from a NYC corp coming, but either an organic win, or a transplant from a state far away, or a corp insourcing stuff from Asia. And not just an Amazon DC. Every state gets those mediocre paying jobs

I do not see it happening. Hence, the defeated attitude amongst those of us who read the Business section first. I'd relish surprising good news events of the type I mentioned above.

[Beeker2211]

Originally Posted by BobNJ1960

IMO Ct residents once did show pride decades back, but the reality is it takes good economic news events to fuel it. I can't remember the last 500 employee or larger corp to relocate to Ct from a truly distant state, excluding neighbors.

I still recall the excitement in Tn when we landed hqs like LP and Nissan from California. It was the main conversation at work for days. One of our execs happened to be at breakfast that day with business leaders with gov as speaker, who quipped "You may want to watch the afternoon press conference today"! He couldn't admit who it was about, but it was a well leaked secret. The excitement was intense. We played it at work in our break rooms.

We need a good MAJOR economic news event in Ct , not from a long-term Ct corp getting a contract, not from a NYC corp coming, but either an organic win, or a transplant from a state far away, or a corp insourcing stuff from Asia. And not just an Amazon DC. Every state gets those mediocre paying jobs

I do not see it happening. Hence, the defeated attitude amongst those of us who read the Business section first. I'd relish surprising good news events of the type I mentioned above.

Datto starting here and becoming a major industry player worldwide isn't good news??

[kidyankee764]

Originally Posted by Beeker2211

Datto starting here and becoming a major industry player worldwide isn't good news??

Datto is a great company and I know several people who work there. But Bob wasn’t talking about companies that have evolved here since 2007 (I think when Datto was founded). He’s talking about actively recruiting, and successfully landing, a major corporation within the state’s borders. That’s is how it’s done in 2019 and unfortunately, CT’s governors haven’t been active in this regard.