Why do people leave Colorado?

[jazzlover]

Originally Posted by Mike from back east

Yes, Maine is #2 in the nation for taxes, but if housing is half of what it is in Boulder, then you're ahead. CO is ranked 30th.

Tax Burden by State. The Tax Foundation - State and Local Tax Burdens Compared to Other U.S. States, 1970-2007

Mike,

I urge people to take these kind of studies with a great big grain of salt. Many of the studies simply take tax collections made by state and local governments from all sources, and then divide that by the population to get the per capita tax burden number. That seems logical, but it has some basic flaws. A great example is Wyoming. Wyoming consistently ranks poorly in most of these studies--showing a very high per capita tax burden. What is left out of the calculation in Wyoming's case is the fact that around 75% of the taxes collected in the state come from the mineral industry--not from the citizens of Wyoming. If those dollars are removed from the tax collection figure before the per capita calculation of tax burden is made, Wyoming drops to 49th or 50th in per capita tax burden actually paid by Wyoming residents. I would suspect that there are numerous anomalies in the calculations for other states, as well. I'm frequently amazed how often organizations make these calculations without doing any more than cursory research of the data underlying the figures. As one who analyzes statistics as part of my work, that's pretty scary.

[amyk1952]

Originally Posted by sosobroke

Colorado people are no different that most people in the USA. When you hear that Coloradoan's hate out-of-staters....this is not true. What we hate is when someone comes from a different state and they try to change Colorado to what they came from. Please come to Colorado....it is a wonderful place to live and raise a family, enjoy the great outdoors, or be a Bronco or Rockies fan, but don't bring the best of your state with you....we are not interested.

I totally agree with you. We are looking forward to moving to Colorado within a few months. We are approaching the retirement years. I hate it when people come to NY with all of their crap and then expect us to embrace it. What you do in your own home is ok. But keep it simple in public. Everyone needs to get along. Don't you think.
I however do wish that was the reality of it, but it's not.

[Katiana]

^^^ I have major problems with the quoted post above. I have seen very little evidence (if any) of anyone from any other state trying to change Colorado. We all have good ideas about how things could be made better. There is nothing wrong with that. Everyone is going to bring some baggage with them, whether they think they are or not. That's life!