[WouldLoveTo]

Originally Posted by MrGompers

I am curious with all the people here who are bragging about other states being better - why don't you guys move? Something brought you to CT unless you were born here.

CT will survive without you.

I for one was born here, and am researching other states now. There is no way I can afford to retire here.

[HumpDay]

I'll be gone soon as well. I'm begging to be transferred to Virginia or Texas and the chances are likely. The company I work for doesn't have many people left in CT. We peaked 5-7 years ago and we're about 60% workers less than our peak. These aren't low paying jobs either and all but 2 want to leave. I'm retiring in 2025 and me and my wife were planning on staying until then but since the state is not leaving out tax increases, we want to save our hard earned dollars by moving out. It's a shame since I've lived here for many decades. I'd love to stay but the problems that this state is facing is making me turn the other way. I'm pretty sure everything wants to at this point. Is anyone on here committed to staying?

[kidyankee764]

Originally Posted by HumpDay

I'll be gone soon as well. I'm begging to be transferred to Virginia or Texas and the chances are likely. The company I work for doesn't have many people left in CT. We peaked 5-7 years ago and we're about 60% workers less than our peak. These aren't low paying jobs either and all but 2 want to leave. I'm retiring in 2025 and me and my wife were planning on staying until then but since the state is not leaving out tax increases, we want to save our hard earned dollars by moving out. It's a shame since I've lived here for many decades. I'd love to stay but the problems that this state is facing is making me turn the other way. I'm pretty sure everything wants to at this point. Is anyone on here committed to staying?

The vast majority of people I know, both affluent and working class, have a desire to live somewhere else. The ones committed to staying are doing so because either their kids are in school or they don't want to leave family - not because they're thrilled with living here.

[RunD1987]

Probably stay. I love to live somewhere warmer lived here my whole life tired of winter's. Mid April to early November the weather is tolerable. Haven't really been affected too much by taxes outside of car taxes before the cap. Also COL is pricey here.

The wife wants to stay in CT. We are both banking on being nurses and moving down to New London area within the next 3 year's. The area is less crowded, cheaper housing, and winter for some reason is less extreme.

[ads94]

I have purchased land in Florida. I am at my job a few more years until I can pay for 75% of the house I am building in cash. Then I am gone from this miserable state.

[Henry10]

Originally Posted by CTartist

Just because people say "look at those liberal states giving welfare away" does not make it true. I have been looking this info up for quite some time and CT is staying pretty consistent. It really is not a welfare state but it looks like a lot of the southern states are.

CT spends 15-20% of its own budget for welfare. Medicaid is a big part of it -- about $ 2.5 Billion. Feds add another $ 2 billion for it.

Here is the CT's budget breakdown :

1- Public Unions: 40%
2- Debt Service: 10%
3- Medicaid + Welfare: 20%
4- Municipal handouts: almost 20%
5- Leftover (roads, tourism, parks and rec): 10%.

About 90% of State's Budget is re-distribution of wealth -- rob the taxpayer to pay Democratic constituencies.

CT not only has tapped out horizontally (i.e. how many people it can tax), but also vertically -- where it spends its money.

Math has CT in a headlock right now.

Originally Posted by WouldLoveTo

I for one was born here, and am researching other states now. There is no way I can afford to retire here.

High COL and congestion -- these are killing it for many seniors. My in-laws for example, are an active couple, they live on the Shoreline, but travel throughout the state on weekdays for outdoors, cultural, and even college lectures. If it weren't for family ties -- they would have been gone. Everything else in CT for them is a negative.

[Wilton2ParkAve]

Originally Posted by Henry10

CT spends 15-20% of its own budget for welfare. Medicaid is a big part of it -- about $ 2.5 Billion. Feds add another $ 2 billion for it.

Here is the CT's budget breakdown :

1- Public Unions: 40%
2- Debt Service: 10%
3- Medicaid + Welfare: 20%
4- Municipal handouts: almost 20%
5- Leftover (roads, tourism, parks and rec): 10%.

About 90% of State's Budget is re-distribution of wealth -- rob the taxpayer to pay Democratic constituencies.

CT not only has tapped out horizontally (i.e. how many people it can tax), but also vertically -- where it spends its money.

Math has CT in a headlock right now.




High COL and congestion -- these are killing it for many seniors. My in-laws for example, are an active couple, they live on the Shoreline, but travel throughout the state on weekdays for outdoors, cultural, and even college lectures. If it weren't for family ties -- they would have been gone. Everything else in CT for them is a negative.

We usually agree philosophically, but i can't reconcile the 40% union figure to the 2016 CT Budget. Debt service makes up 13%, services (roads, tourism, parks and recs) is 12%, municipal handouts is 15%, Medicaid is 12%, personnel costs is 32%. This sums to ~84%, leading 16% for welfare and public unions.

[CTartist]

Originally Posted by Henry10

CT spends 15-20% of its own budget for welfare. Medicaid is a big part of it -- about $ 2.5 Billion. Feds add another $ 2 billion for it.

Here is the CT's budget breakdown :

1- Public Unions: 40%
2- Debt Service: 10%
3- Medicaid + Welfare: 20%
4- Municipal handouts: almost 20%
5- Leftover (roads, tourism, parks and rec): 10%.

Can you put a link to the info above, thanks.

[MrGompers]

Originally Posted by HumpDay

I'll be gone soon as well. I'm begging to be transferred to Virginia or Texas and the chances are likely. The company I work for doesn't have many people left in CT. We peaked 5-7 years ago and we're about 60% workers less than our peak. These aren't low paying jobs either and all but 2 want to leave. I'm retiring in 2025 and me and my wife were planning on staying until then but since the state is not leaving out tax increases, we want to save our hard earned dollars by moving out. It's a shame since I've lived here for many decades. I'd love to stay but the problems that this state is facing is making me turn the other way. I'm pretty sure everything wants to at this point. Is anyone on here committed to staying?

The easiest way to decrease income taxes is thru IRA/401k deductions. If you have already maxed IRA/401k deductions than moving to save taxes will make some sense. It is hard to beat the tax savings that comes with maxing IRA/401K deductions though.

A quick illustration. If you are over 50 years old you and your spouse can contribute $16,000 per person every year into an IRA/401k. That is $32,000 a year that comes right off the top. If your gross income is $100k now its $68k.

Also, if you are on the cusp of the itemized deduction faze outs which is around 200k per year if married this can bring you back under and recoup that 2% faze out (Federal level) 3% (state level).

If you are already contributing the max pre tax to an IRA/401k account then maybe moving makes sense.

I think it would be near impossible for a regular W-2 wage earner to save enough in taxes in any other way than IRA/401k.

IF you have a CPA you can ask them the same question - Don't take my word for it, but I think you'll get the same answer.

[Stylo]

I love this state and the area I'm in, but am thinking about other areas. The thing is, my job industry is very NYC-centric. The only Metro areas that would even be close are Chicago, LA, SF. Which don't appeal that much to me. I guess LA has the most appeal out of all of them.

But really I may just be moving closer to NYC because I'm not confident in the job market here. My industry did really well in FFC for a long time, but it's barely hanging on now with no real growth. Maybe part of it is young people don't really want to work in the suburbs. Which makes finding talent a challenge. But also the state isn't doing much to incentivize companies that could just go to NYC or Chicago.

So, I may move to FFC closer to the city, or another area like Westchester. Slimmer chance, but a place like LA. Austin, Boulder, SF can't be completely ruled out. Unlike many, I don't ***** about COL because the job market and opportunities in high cost areas is more than worth it for me.

If I was a renter, I'd be much more likely to explore other places. Homeownership is the only thing keeping me from being more serious about moving.

Talk amongst my friends about staying and sentiment on state is 50/50, but that's drastically worse than a few years back. A few friends that always thought they'd stay are hearing the news and starting to consider moving.

Our government has done us no favors over the years economically, and we lack a big sexy city for economic growth and youth retention. For years, the suburbs flourished and business was good. Now it's bad and young professionals want nothing to do with it. Working in a suburban office park sounds very depressing, personally. And that's where a lot of our business growth was, while we let our cities rot.

You can count me as one loss of state income in the past 2 years. I'm making a good salary in NYC and I was paying CT income tax for years. Not anymore. NY gets it now.