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Please share your views about KS given the years of anti-KS posts propagated by people with political agendas and that have never lived in the state and will not factually document their complaints.
The beneficiaries would be people like myself that moved here and had no idea of the insane state rivalries that would nudge others to post gross fabrications about rival states.
Here goes my opinion:
1) THe state is large and diverse. The metro area is vastly different from the rest of the state. Anyone attempting to paint the state under one color is up to something.
2) IMO its much cheaper to live in than most major metro areas like Chicago and has short commute times and generally reasonable times to reach the various destinations.
3) Public schools are top-notch requiring no consideration of private schooling except in rare occurrences.
There are places in MO that are no different than suburban parts of KS and have lower general taxes so those might be viable choices. However, please note that my lack of partisanship should warn you as to the tidal wave of vomit that will eventually show up regarding the state of KS....
So basically, do your research and ignore the rabid partisans. Best of luck.
Maharishi University of Management----University is good,but some professors are so ridiculous. Sabita(Indian)is one of
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mathguy
Please share your views about KS given the years of anti-KS posts propagated by people with political agendas and that have never lived in the state and will not factually document their complaints.
The beneficiaries would be people like myself that moved here and had no idea of the insane state rivalries that would nudge others to post gross fabrications about rival states.
Here goes my opinion:
1) THe state is large and diverse. The metro area is vastly different from the rest of the state. Anyone attempting to paint the state under one color is up to something.
2) IMO its much cheaper to live in than most major metro areas like Chicago and has short commute times and generally reasonable times to reach the various destinations.
3) Public schools are top-notch requiring no consideration of private schooling except in rare occurrences.
There are places in MO that are no different than suburban parts of KS and have lower general taxes so those might be viable choices. However, please note that my lack of partisanship should warn you as to the tidal wave of vomit that will eventually show up regarding the state of KS....
So basically, do your research and ignore the rabid partisans. Best of luck.
University is good,but some professors are so ridiculous.
Sabita(Indian)is one of the most ridiculous professor I have ever seen in my student life. She always talks about her guy husband in the class room. She has a freaking Indian mentality. She gets angry easily and wants to show her dirty *****. She would be angry if you ask questions.
She teaches marketing and operation management. Never take those courses with her
University is good,but some professors are so ridiculous.
Sabita(Indian)is one of the most ridiculous professor I have ever seen in my student life. She always talks about her guy husband in the class room. She has a freaking Indian mentality. She gets angry easily and wants to show her dirty *****. She would be angry if you ask questions.
She teaches marketing and operation management. Never take those courses with her.
I grew up in western Shawnee from about 6 years of age to 15 or so, and then my family moved to a small Kansas town south of Johnson County, which upset me greatly. I didn't want to leave, and even as a teen vowed I would be back. I graduated from high school in my small Kansas town (which wasn't bad, but I had fallen in love with Johnson County as a child and always knew I wanted to go back). I went from there to college at KU, then began working my way back to Johnson County. I couldn't afford to even rent in Johnson County (there weren't as many housing options then as there are now), so I lived in Kansas City, Kansas, midtown Kansas City, Missouri, and northeast Kansas City, Missouri.
I had my first child when we lived in northeast Kansas City and that was when I decided one way or another we were moving to Johnson County. My husband had done part of his growing up in Johnson County too and we agreed that is where our kids were going to be raised.
The two main reasons for wanting to raise them in Johnson County: Great schools and low crime.
I love living in the Johnson County area, but there is more to Kansas than that. I like going south or west into wide open spaces. I love driving through the Flint Hills of Kansas. I even love the little town I moved to against my will.
The only area I've lived in is JOCO; although I have visited other areas of Kansas, and have friends from around the state. I moved to JOCO 18 years ago.
What I like best about living here?
The people! Majority are the nicest, most down-to-earth folks I've ever come across.
Lack of traffic congestion! Since I've spent a large amount of time in the Los Angeles area, this area is heaven to drive in!
Cost of living. Very reasonable, and again am comparing to large metropolitan areas.
The beautiful 'green' of Spring/Summer. Again, am comparing to the dry brown landscape of most of SoCal during the summer months since they don't get much rain.
The only area I've lived in is JOCO; although I have visited other areas of Kansas, and have friends from around the state. I moved to JOCO 18 years ago.
What I like best about living here?
The people! Majority are the nicest, most down-to-earth folks I've ever come across.
Lack of traffic congestion! Since I've spent a large amount of time in the Los Angeles area, this area is heaven to drive in!
Cost of living. Very reasonable, and again am comparing to large metropolitan areas.
The beautiful 'green' of Spring/Summer. Again, am comparing to the dry brown landscape of most of SoCal during the summer months since they don't get much rain.
Yeah. My daily commuting time went down by 90minutes or more when I moved here.
That's almost like getting an extra day off each week.
I hear stories about people that are gone from their house 12-13 hours a day and then state that they "love their area" when they have no free time to take advantage of it.
The most my commute time has been is 20 minutes, and that was going from Prairie Village to Saint Luke's on the Plaza. Within 30 minutes of getting off work, I was home and changed into comfortable clothes.
1) THe state is large and diverse. The metro area is vastly different from the rest of the state. Anyone attempting to paint the state under one color is up to something.
Yes, Kansas is large in land area with a sizable portion that I consider to be part of the West, with very little in common with the Midwest. It has diverse areas like SW Kansas which is demographically identical to portions of Texas or southern California with majority/minority demographics present- mainly due to the commercial agriculture industry present there. Water is running out due to short-sighted greed and illogical irrigation derived agriculture to grow corn in semi-arid climatic conditions. So, that is definitely a strong western trait. Ranching and mineral resources have always been huge, not as big of a factor in much of the Midwest core. Wheat is the most common crop grown where growing conditions are favorable... The cities in Kansas outside of Johnson County tend to be declining or stagnant economically. Examples include: Wichita, Topeka, Salina, Lawrence, Manhattan, Hutchinson, Emporia, Garden City, Kansas City, KS, etc. All these cities have less overall employment or about the same employment compared to 10-15 years ago.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mathguy
2) IMO its much cheaper to live in than most major metro areas like Chicago and has short commute times and generally reasonable times to reach the various destinations.
I agree 100% that living in Johnson County, KS is cheaper than living in the Chicagoland region, although the rest of the state tends to have much lower salaries overall- so it tends to more closely match the cost of living. Most know that Kansas is a lower cost of living state than the national average (mainly due to housing costs), but tends to be a HIGH tax state for having a lower population compared to many of its neighbors. Income, property, and sales taxes are certainly not low in Johnson County, although overall property and sales taxes are less in other regions of the state.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mathguy
3) Public schools are top-notch requiring no consideration of private schooling except in rare occurrences.
Yes, Johnson County, KS has excellent schools and ranks amongst the top tier in the percentage its population that has attained a four year college degree. The rest of the state outside the university cities are at or below average in educational attainment- some counties significantly below the national average. Johnson County residents will likely end up paying much higher property taxes in the future if governor Brownback keeps up his pledge to cut funding to education, both at the local level and at the state level (cuts to universities continue to occur). This results in a continual downshifting of costs as administrative overhead and administrative costs at the university level need to be bloated. Tuition costs will continue to rise and outpace inflation, and this will be a common feature in many other places as well.
Disclosure:
Family from Kansas and Kansas City region. Lived in Johnson County, Douglas County, and Ellis County in the past.
Last edited by GraniteStater; 06-28-2013 at 01:53 PM..
Here is the analysis of the economic performance of the larger population counties in KS outside of Johnson County.
I will use the year 2000 as a benchmark as I present the facts.
Total Employment Number= From 2011
Sedgwick County (Wichita) Total Employment: 212,620. Fewer total jobs there now compared to the year 2000.
Wyandotte County (Kansas City Metro) Total Employment: 64,830. Slightly more jobs there now compared to the year 2000.
Shawnee County (Topeka) Total Employment: 74,989. Fewer total jobs there now compared to the year 2000.
Douglas County (Lawrence) Total Employment: 37,058. Fewer total jobs there now compared to the year 2000.
Riley County (Manhattan) Total Employment: 20,347. Fewer total jobs there now compared to the year 2000.
Finney County (Garden City) Total Employment: 13,937. Fewer total jobs there now compared to the year 2000.
Reno County (Hutchinson) Total Employment: 22,425. Fewer total jobs there now compared to the year 2000.
Ellis County (Hays) Total Employment: 12,667: About the same number of jobs there now compared to the year 2000.
Saline County (Salina) Total Employment: 27,146. Slightly more jobs there now compared to the year 2000.
COMPARED TO:
Johnson County (Kansas City Metro) Total Employment: 296,871. About 4-5% more jobs there now compared to the year 2000.
TOTAL STATE-LEVEL EMPLOYMENT (NON-FARM) combined for all 105 counties in the state: 1,113,423.
The percentage of the total number of jobs that Johnson County now has compared to the rest of the state: 26.6%
It will be fascinating to watch how Brownback will continue to leverage the "successful" social engineering scheme to continue the relatively strong performance of Johnson County, KS when the job growth isn't occurring in much of the rest of the state. As mentioned, JOCO residents will likely face a higher tax burden in the future if they wish to maintain the high quality of overall services and amenities that are currently afforded to them.
This website looks at total tax burden and KS is fairly middle of the road in that regard. As such, I really don't view KS as a high tax state compared to most of it's neighbors.
Since the entire country continues to depopulate it's rural areas with increased large-scale agriculture, none of the trends you displayed are remotely surprising.
I'm not sure I agree with the portion of your analysis solely looking at the "job losses" because that doesn't address the outward migration of people and thus less demand on certain services as well. With the states unemployment level around 12th best in the country it may not follow that there needs to be large tax increases due to the rural "job losses".
There are so many factors in play that it will be a long time before things become clearer on the topic and outside economic forces can make things better or worse despite any plans to the contrary.
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Maharishi University of Management----University is good,but some professors are so ridiculous. Sabita(Indian)is one of
