[7 Wishes]

Originally Posted by BPt111

Why people from NYC, Westchester/Orange/Putnam County, Rockland/Dutchess county, Long Island area want move to CT what about NJ, PA, MA, VA etc

It's all relative, property taxes, etc. in CT while high are cheaper than NY and among the other states you mentioned NJ and MA are not much of an improvement compared to CT either (MA has a car tax like CT and both MA and NJ have sky high auto insurance rates) and (except maybe for NJ but there's the issue of toll bridges/tunnels) still very close to family and friends in NY compared to those other states. But there are a lot of ex-NYers in PA and VA (and NC) too!

I didn't realize that CT towns had alderman, I thought the term was only used in Chicago for their city council reps......

[mlassoff]

Who goes on the news and announces they're leaving the state unless they have an agenda?

Maybe he's a lousy businessman? Since he purports to be a business owner and is not on a fixed income, I'm not sure you can make that argument here.

[MrGompers]

Originally Posted by BPt111

Why people from NYC, Westchester/Orange/Putnam County, Rockland/Dutchess county, Long Island area want move to CT what about NJ, PA, MA, VA etc

It's possible to commute to parts of NY from CT. IMO that's why CT keeps coming up in these conversations. NJ is too, but their property taxes are insane.

Originally Posted by 7 Wishes

It's all relative, property taxes, etc. in CT while high are cheaper than NY and among the other states you mentioned NJ and MA are not much of an improvement compared to CT either (MA has a car tax like CT and both MA and NJ have sky high auto insurance rates) and (except maybe for NJ but there's the issue of toll bridges/tunnels) still very close to family and friends in NY compared to those other states. But there are a lot of ex-NYers in PA and VA (and NC) too!

There are a lot of ex NYers in Delaware too. Wilmington, DE is approx 125 miles from NYC and has an amtrak station to boot if you don't want to drive.

And no sales tax in DE. They even put it on their "Welcome to Delaware" signs at the borders.

[JayCT]

Originally Posted by CTartist&musician

Let's see you make that same assessment when you are retired and living on a fixed income. Many seniors get most of their income from Social Security which can not keep up with these high taxes in this state. The majority of people I know that are moving out of state are newly retired or have been retired but just can't keep up with the high property taxes.

There should be better tax relief for the seniors in this state and it would make financial sense. The seniors do not have kids in the school systems so that would balance out the budgets of many towns as education is about 60% to 65% of a towns budget.

I know that one of my representatives in Trumbull is trying to get better senior relief passed in CT.

A lot of these new taxes are regressive which hurt the lower income households. When you combine the regressive taxes from the state with the high property taxes many seniors just can't make it here. The overall tax burden on lower income individuals is just too great now.

Actually I know an elderly person whose home taxes are significantly reduced based on their income. They save several thousand a year. They just bring their income taxes to town hall every year. Actually several of their friends have this too. Jay

[CTartist&musician]

Originally Posted by JayCT

Actually I know an elderly person whose home taxes are significantly reduced based on their income. They save several thousand a year. They just bring their income taxes to town hall every year. Actually several of their friends have this too. Jay

You are correct but it all depends on what town you are in. All the different CT towns have different senior tax relief and some don't have any programs at all. One of the reasons I like Branford, Guilford and Madison for retirement is the have good tax relief programs with Madison being the best financially.

You can see at the time this document was made Ansonia did not have a local senior tax relief program. Maybe the alderman from Ansonia is looking into the future and thinking 1) high CT taxes + 2) no tax relief program in Ansonia = I can't stay here in CT.

With someone from Ansonia the die is cast and you can't really change it. They have low property values so even if a senior sold a home there they can not "buy into" a town with a good senior tax relief program like I can coming from Fairfield County. Look at the towns and you can get a sense of which towns have better senior tax relief and they tend to be the wealthier towns in CT who can afford it.

http://coa.cga.ct.gov/pdfs/Reports/p...%20April09.pdf

The document above is a high help in deciding where I will land in retirement in CT. If I don't get into a town with good tax relief the surviving spouse (me or my husband) would have a hard time paying taxes once we get into our 80's.

[Henry10]

CT is a high-tax state. Adjusted for Cost of Living Index -- it is the worst in the country.

2015

Now, if you say it you are an idiot, malcontent with an agenda!!

[goldenage1]

Originally Posted by CTartist&musician

url]http://coa.cga.ct.gov/pdfs/Reports/prop%20tax%20report%20FINAL%20revised%20April09.pd f[/url]

The document above is a high help in deciding where I will land in retirement in CT. If I don't get into a town with good tax relief the surviving spouse (me or my husband) would have a hard time paying taxes once we get into our 80's.

Thanks for the information. I am 69 and occasionally think of moving back to Connecticut if I were ever widowed. The report confirms that I probably can't afford to.

[CTartist&musician]

Originally Posted by Henry10

CT is a high-tax state. Adjusted for Cost of Living Index -- it is the worst in the country.

2015

Now, if you say it you are an idiot, malcontent with an agenda!!

I think many of the people on CT city-Data are from Fairfield County. A lot of these taxes ironically are REGRESSIVE so while we may feel the increase in taxes to some degree in Fairfield County we are going to be able to pay them easier than the lower income residents in the rest of the state.

I don't know anything about this man but I would like to point out some Ansonia numbers.

Ansonia HH income: $52,115 (City-Data)
Ansonia Average Property tax: $4,295 (Blockshopper CT)

That is a tremendous local tax burden for a household that makes $52,000. Now throw in all the regressive taxes that the poorer households are getting hit with I don't know how lower income households in CT are making do. Now can you start to understand how hard it is for the lower income towns with high state & local taxes.

And by the way, while they are giving themselves raises in Hartford they are cutting services to the poor so it is even worse than you think for the poor of CT, and that means the poorer towns including Ansonia.

[HeadedWest]

Originally Posted by JayCT

Actually I know an elderly person whose home taxes are significantly reduced based on their income. They save several thousand a year. They just bring their income taxes to town hall every year. Actually several of their friends have this too. Jay

The reduction we could see in our town was a trivial amount. Not worth considering.

[richrf]

Originally Posted by CTartist&musician

And by the way, while they are giving themselves raises in Hartford they are cutting services to the poor so it is even worse than you think for the poor of CT, and that means the poorer towns including Ansonia.

Unfortunately corruption of this type is an unintended consequence of progressive politics. While I consider myself socially progressive, I've learned that politicians (inevitably they are or become corrupt) use social programs as an income source for themselves and their patronage army. Very little actually ever gets to the intended audience. In other words progressive politics + the ability to tax and assess = corruption. Hence the poor state of financial affairs in the progressive East coast states. This formula probably accounts for the extremely high taxes found in most localities. Inevitably it leads to a lower standard of living for the 99%.