I am a California native that lived in Metro Austin for three years. The lack of a state tax didn't make up for the ridiculous property taxes at all. The one other huge expense that a lot of transplants don't realize is the water bill. Prices are ridiculous to begin with and on top of the bill many neighborhoods had to pay a fee for the MUD - Metropolitan Utility District - to pay off the bond that was issued to build the local water source.
this post was submitted on 30 Nov 2023
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How do you lads get anything done with all these taxes and charges. People give out about Europe's high taxes but I move anywhere and utilities are provided for, I don't have to worry about crazy bills and charges. The only thing I have is a property tax that amounts to 400 a year, which I'm not 100% sold on but am okay with.
My cousin in Chicago has thousands to pay every year for properly taxes and then more for water and it all just seems to stack up to a similar price with more complications.
My water bill, both cold and hot is 100€ a year.
For a given level of government services, the amount of revenue needed doesn't really change, so any offsets in one form of taxation must be compensated by another. You might be able to structure things so it doesn't look as bad, and you can attempt to control the distribution of who all is paying, but at the end of the day, the expenses need to be met one way or another.
If you're a renter in Texas, for instance, you might be glad about not getting a state income tax bill, but you're not going to think very much about how a nontrivial chunk of your monthly rent is instead going to pay your landlord's property tax. That might feel better, but mathematically it won't be meaningfully different.
With exception for all the costs associated with trivial bureaucracy from all these agencies and tax collections points.
That's a very important point! Anything involving an appraisal, like property or wealth taxes, are inherently more complex as compared to something like a direct consumption tax.
had to pay a fee for the MUD - Metropolitan Utility District - to pay off the bond that was issued to build the local water source.
That's a flat tax. Not a 'fee'.
I mean. Fuck that.
Texans made Texas the way that Texas is. Yall made your mess. Deal with it.
People act as though Texas is some political monolith. In reality it's a gerrymandered state where my blue vote is effectively suppressed.
Which is why I vote blue every time.
But between this intense heat, crazy politics, and cost of living, we've decided to leave for good and head to Knoxville.
Don't fucking come here to Tennessee. Cost of living isn't big but we also don't have a lot of medical services. This state is like the worst to retire in and you might as well drink Draino if your kids are remotely thinking about putting you in a home. The amount of elder abuse that goes on here is about as high as the rate of 50 somethings that "totally didn't groom" their new 18 year old wife.
Don't come to Tennessee. No one deserves that kind of abuse. Don't do it!
Loan Star is a review.
Yep ole Texas, the one-star state
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Texans succeeding, what??