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Sanitation pick up 2-3 times per week (some cities states you load it up in your pick up truck)
School bus pick up (some states do not have)
Extra police than most cities/states
Better hospitals than most cities/states (Especially in NYC)
Better education than most.
I can go and on.
Again, a great place to live if you can afford it.oops
I would NOT want to be sick in any oter state.
4 Floridian family members all get garbage collection a couple of times a week.
Kiddies get school buses.
Their county HS ranks higher than a fair number of 'high performing ' LI districts.
They have a local PD, a county sheriff and FSP. (More police, not less.)
Amazingly, they have many excellent hospitals and doctors. My dad is living proof of this.
Pizza Meh. Bagels are good. NYC guy makes them.
In contrast:
My VT taxes are 2X FL and about 1/2 my LI.
No garbage collection. Either you buy tickets for the transfer station or you hire a private company. When I am up there for a few weeks at a clip, I find a spend about $6 a week on garbage. You don't pay for recyclable items, cardboard, newspaper, etc.
Not everyone gets a school bus...depends on your road.
Most residential roads are unpaved.
Plowing, sanding, earth resurfacing puts the Town of Brookhaven to shame.
Schools are a mixed bag -- depends on the area.
We have Town police and VSP.
Small, localized hospitals = further travel to hospitals for emergencies or serious illness care. (Dartmouth is closest to me and it is an hour on a good day -- about as far as the top NYC hospitals.)
Of all the things we are listing, schools, garbage collection, highway/road maintenance and police make up a chunk of the taxes.
This is all very true.We have a SEP and when retirement comes, I cant see taking the annual withdrawal and using it all to pay property taxes. For what? Crappy roads? Schools which are sucking us dry and providing less for the students each year? Picky garbage collectors who forget my street when it snows? A hundred special districts?
To be fair, I love my house and where I live. It will break my heart when the day comes and I am forced to sell for financial reasons.
Quote:
Originally Posted by bubbathedog
I think it really depends on what you value, but my LI property tax bill is between 3-4 times higher than places on my short list of relo targets and there just isn't any aspect of life here that is worth that kind of money. In fact, quality of life on LI is rock bottom when you look at things like commute time, cost of living, etc.
I can refute every point on your list because I don't think any of those points hold water and where they do, we pay way too much. In the case of health care and education, I think LI's quality of both is very overrated, just like with education. It's 'conveyer belt' health care and education, where moving numbers of people is what counts. Maybe there are extra police, but they still take 45 minutes to get to a home emergency. School buses I really don't care about, but when my kids were going to school, they either walked or I drove them. My garbage service is generally very good, but things like leaf and debris pickup can take weeks, so I do put them in my pickup and hump them to the landfill. To sum it all up, I believe I pay enough to have much higher quality services plus decent roads (given the gas tax we pay).
On my list of relo targets are five places that are not perfect, but I will not spend 1/2 day in traffic, will have a full year's IRA contribution in the property tax savings alone and municipal services that are equal or better than on LI.
Where LI does shine is in crime rate, where LI is very low per capita. I don't credit this to the quantity of police, just that communities on LI tend to be more polarized which does help. Of course, this too is changing.
It used to be the NY Metro area had the highest salaries in my specialty, which sealed the deal. Unfortunately, that's history now and I can find better compensation in many other places, including some with the same services and education systems as good or better. Even better, I can find places that offer way higher quality of life, including easier commutes and recreation other than going to mall or the beach or the city.
Now, let's see how the housing market is here this spring....
BUBBATHEDOG
I wish you the best in your new adventure. I am sure in the long run you will be happy where you relocate. I hope you sell your home at a high.
sanitation pick up 2-3 times per week (some cities states you load it up in your pick up truck)
school bus pick up (some states do not have)
extra police than most cities/states
better hospitals than most cities/states (especially in nyc)
better education than most.
I can go and on.
Again, a great place to live if you can afford it.
I would not want to be sick in any oter state.
So true! That "American Dream" is over. Especially if they take that deduction away. It almost pays to rent. 1K per month in taxes +/- OR $1400 per month +/- for an appartment with no mtg, no house down payment, no insurane, no up keep, ect....
Status:
"Let this year be over..."
(set 16 days ago)
Location: Where my bills arrive
19,219 posts, read 17,075,134 times
Reputation: 15537
/\
The "American Dream" is not over! It may be over the way it was interpeted since WWII and for generations in the last 60 years but it is simply time to redefine what it means. You can't tell me the goals of the immigrant masses around 1900 have held for the last 110+ years, no they changed as every dream does.
People all over the world still line up and wait to legally emigrate to the United States for what? For the dream that they still hold. There are opportunities out there for those willing to look past the remains of their white picket fence...
In my district ,teacher gets hired at $51,000 with a BA and make $104,000 to $117,000 after 20 years (depending on all this mumbo jumbo in the contract).......seems well short of the $150,000 salary noted on this thread....is my district cheap compared to others?
In my district ,teacher gets hired at $51,000 with a BA and make $104,000 to $117,000 after 20 years (depending on all this mumbo jumbo in the contract).......seems well short of the $150,000 salary noted on this thread....is my district cheap compared to others?
Could be, are you taking into account premiums for having a masters degree plus credits (I think teachers around here can top at Masters +60).
In my district ,teacher gets hired at $51,000 with a BA and make $104,000 to $117,000 after 20 years (depending on all this mumbo jumbo in the contract).......seems well short of the $150,000 salary noted on this thread....is my district cheap compared to others?
My wife's district is slightly higher but just about the same I bet thats on par for most districts. Administrators are usually the ones making $150k + not teachers.
just want to point out that it seems like everyone in this thread couldn't care less about the race angle Newday wanted to add to this. Interesting that they won't give you the skin color of the guy that robs a gas station but THIS gets the race card.
Carry on with the teacher bashing/defending!
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