Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Rankings don't make sense to me. Minnesota's Education is probably better than WA, health care also. I would give the natural environment to WA, hands down, though i would guess the pulp mills and nuclear power industry works against them.
WA definitely needs to revise its property tax laws to account for long time homeowners vs. new buyers. That was one thing CA got right which most would agree with there. Elderly folks who have been in their homes for decades should not be expected to pay the same rate as new buyers. They basically get priced out of their own homes, otherwise. I think they tried to get something like that approved in WA at one point, like Prop 13, but it didn't gain enough traction, apparently.
Derek
I-747 voter approved and tossed by a judge... it meant real prop tax predictability.
Once it was tossed my taxes went up 80% from what I paid for the place the year before... it sure was a wake up call...
I don't think I will be able to pay the property tax if retired.
Over a $1000 a month now for a home that rents for $2000...
Now back in California I was the new kid on the block with the high property tax... and had the nicest neighbors ever... many were at or near or over 100... not a typo... they had lived in their homes since the late 50's early 60's...
Many had very modest means but Prop Tax was kept in check making it possible for them to live out their lives in the homes many had built...
I-747 voter approved and tossed by a judge... it meant real prop tax predictability.
Once it was tossed my taxes went up 80% from what I paid for the place the year before... it sure was a wake up call...
I don't think I will be able to pay the property tax if retired.
Over a $1000 a month now for a home that rents for $2000...
Now back in California I was the new kid on the block with the high property tax... and had the nicest neighbors ever... many were at or near or over 100... not a typo... they had lived in their homes since the late 50's early 60's...
Many had very modest means but Prop Tax was kept in check making it possible for them to live out their lives in the homes many had built...
Yes, indeed. I've met many elderly folks in places like Carmel which is one of the most beautiful places I can think of to retire. Yet surprisingly a number of them have very little money during their later years in life. One elderly widow recounted how her husband who was in the military built their house with his own hands. And back then a middle class military family could afford to put a house up on the beach in Carmel. So they did! Why not, right? Their little piece of heaven. Later when he passed away she remained for many years in that same home with all her fond memories of their lives together.
Now try to imagine not being able to live that life with dignity in the very home they built themselves while on SSI or other modest means? Should she not be given that right? I mean seriously? Or instead should she be kicked to the curb via exorbitant taxes? Basically, as a society, what is the right thing to do for her? Forget red or blue for a minute! Had her and her husband not earned the right for them to live in their own home into their elderly years? They built it, paid for it and owned every aspect of it.
Why would anyone think or suggest anything differently? That really boggles my mind.
Not for a minute do I begrudge my senior neighbors... they make the neighborhood what it is and long ago retired the drainage and infrastructure bonds that I get simply by buying in.
When I bought the tax went from $1200 to $8800... just what I expected... the retired military WWII vet in his 80's was aghast at the tax I was facing... I said not a problem because I fully intend to be one with the low taxes in 30-40 years... we got a good laugh.
In all seriousness... the WA property Tax situation has been like a whipsaw... I did my due diligence and I-747 was law of the land... never expected a voter approved tax measure would get tossed out... and the proof of year over year 80% increase was most sobering and gave me cause to reconsider...
Rankings don't make sense to me. Minnesota's Education is probably better than WA, health care also. I would give the natural environment to WA, hands down, though i would guess the pulp mills and nuclear power industry works against them.
Have lived in both states, btw.
All these numeric rankings basically just do the same thing. They gather up a bunch of public data sets, run the results for all 50 states, and then rank them for whatever criteria they choose to use. So, for education it would just be whatever 50-state data set is available. Probably standardized test scores, per-pupil spending, statewide dropout rates, etc. No one is making a qualitative judgement. It's just some intern crunching numbers and rank-ordering the results. For the environment it's probably things like number of super-fund sites, per-capita spending on environmental protection, stuff like that.
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
34,794 posts, read 58,282,396 times
Reputation: 46294
Quote:
Originally Posted by happygrrrl
I learned about this after I moved here, and it really made me question the reason to bother voting in this state.
if you are from one of the 36 of 39 counties that do not control the state elections, there is little need to vote (except for local issues). No need to campaign / advertise either (Saves precious campaign dollars for those needing to be persuaded, since they are not willing to be educated voters. )
There are so many -as social scientists would say-- independent variables that all such research can only paint a broad picture. Note Stealth Rabbit - usually a great source of information- says Wyoming has only "one great university" I've spent some years in academia ( not too many lol) and I've never heard any Wyoming college referred to as "great"- decent maybe. Its certainly not as good as University of Colorado but that wouldn't make many people's "great list". University of Washington is a step up and while some would call it "great", among public universities "great" might mean the "Top 5". - Cal-Berkeley- Michigan- Virginia MIT CalTech.
That's just an example with one criteria. Any rating in any category has to be somewhat arbitrary . Someone is picking a cut-off point.
Can me make generalizations? - sure . We know Washington is one of the best states-- Louisiana - Mississippi. - Alabama. near the bottom- especially in education. We can also generally say - the States that go for Trump and less educated and poorer than the Democratic states but there are exceptions.
These surveys -as long as they aren't click-bait are fun-- but don't take them too seriously.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
