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0 pointsacdha1y ago0 comments

“High taxes” is really a question of how rich you are: Texas famously does not have an income tax but they compensate with other taxes and that ends up making it much closer, possibly even in California’s favor, for most people:

https://wallethub.com/edu/best-worst-states-to-be-a-taxpayer...

Texas also has worse public services so you’re going to be paying more out of pocket for replacements, too, and spending more time indoors due to the climate and lack of things like parks.

Now, if you’re the boss this is fine because you have such high income that the difference in property and local taxes doesn’t come anywhere near cancelling out your savings on income taxes, but that’s not true for most employees. Everyone I know who’s moved from California, DC, or NYC moved back because it wasn’t really cheaper and the quality of life was so much lower.

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throwthrowuknow1y ago

That’s a big fucking asterisk on that site. Somehow I don’t think those calculations are going to apply to X and SpaceX employees living in LA and SF.

acdhaOP1y ago

Yes, those employees will be paying even higher property taxes because their homes will cost more than the U.S. median, which will further lower the benefits of moving to Texas for them.

They use the national 75th percentile household income of $75k, while more local figures have LA at $76k, Austin at 89k, Dallas at $65k, and the Bay Area at $126k so it’s going to under-weight the income tax savings for SF more than anyone else.

Tesla’s median employee earns $45k since they have a lot of manufacturing jobs. SpaceX and X appear to have medians in the low $100k range which gives a household a California income tax rate around 8% or, for a working couple, something like a $16-20k versus the higher local taxes in Texas. Again, likely a modest savings but it’s not transformative the way it is for their boss whose income has 3+ extra zeros on the end.

pandaman1y ago

As someone who actually moved to Texas from California I am calling bs. I pay less in local taxes than I did in CA despite my income growing more than double. It's not just the lack of income tax but also lower sales tax, lower vehicle taxes, lower insurance, lack of CA payroll taxes.

And as for lack of parks and inferior public services, I have not noticed anything like that. Parks in Austin are actually useful as the trails are not blocked by tent cities, like in LA, and the main public service that I use, roads, is vastly superior here too. Frankly I don't even know how they managed to keep roads and streets in such a bad shape in LA, where the temperature never drops below freezing.

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