People Moving Here: Why Tennessee Whomps Kentucky (home, casinos)

[LauraC]

Saw this article this morning about why Tennessee is growing more than Kentucky. The article is coming from the position that a lot of people moving here is a good thing. The researchers are from Kentucky.

Taxation causes Kentucky to lag Tennessee in growth | www.tennessean.com | The Tennessean

I think I saw this question someplace else on City Data but if it was cheaper to live in the state you left, would you have stayed there?

[mrradio]

I left NY and even with considerably cheaper taxes there, I would have still left. It was a quality of life issue, the need for more space and greater peace and quiet. Moving here to TN five years ago was wonderful.

[Wordy]

Nope, we came from Florida and I didn't like it even when it was cheap to live there. I have always wanted to leave Florida and one of my top choices to land was Tennessee.

That was an interesting article. I had no idea Kentucky's taxes were so high relative to Tennessee, or that KY is not a 'right-to-work' state.

[Pam& Bill]

I left upstate NY and even if I could afford to live there, I still would have left. After 9/11 the amount of city people moving upstate and the demand for more services, was just a constant battle of them vs. us. It was something I had no interest in being a part of.
But I was just saying to Bill yesterday how it is so nice to live in a place that people want to move to, instead of move out of.
Pam

[BarbG]

No, I wouldn't have stayed. I was born and raised on the MS Gulf Coast. The area had this wonderful small town atmosphere and a quiet way of life, and then the casinos moved in. Casinoland. Nice place to visit, but I didn't want to live there anymore. The area became very tourist-driven and job opportunities outside of tourism became fewer and fewer. To top it off, we got really tired of evacuating for hurricanes and decided that we were ready to get off that roller coaster.

We had traveled here for 20 years before moving to east TN. After evacuating for yet another hurricane in 2004, we began our plans to move, and sold our home 2 weeks before Hurricane Katrina decimated the area in 2005.

I have never regretted the move. Sadly, Katrina washed away much of what I still loved about the area. The hometown I loved will rebound due to the great courage and fortitude the wonderful people of the area, but the hometown I was linked to is gone, and won't be rebuilt the way it was. TN is home now.