Well yes, my son was born in the tax paradise of Hillsborough County,
Florida (i.e. Tampa) in 1989. No state income tax, fairly low state
sales tax, no local sales tax, fairly low property taxes. Sounds good,
except that the public services were so lousy that if you wanted your
child to go a school which did not need metal detectors and had
teachers who could actually read and write you either had to be a
Catholic or be able to fork over $10-$15K per year on a private
school. We did not fulfill either condition.
Contrast with New Jersey, where we moved in 1990 and where we lived
for 5 years. Sure, there was a 7% state income tax, but when our son
reached school age, we were able to send him to an excellent public
school in our town. Etc.
One way or the other, services like education, health care and so on
have to be paid for. I prefer the NJ approach, and even more the
European approach. That's one of the reasons I live over here.
Nathan
Nathan Wajsman
Alicante, Spain
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On Oct 24, 2008, at 9:10 PM, Jim Couch wrote:
> For those not in the United States, understand that this varies
> greatly
> from state to state. As an example, in Washington state we have a
> sales
> tax on goods and labor (but not food you buy at the grocery store.)
> The
> tax applies to labor (such as a car or bike repair) but not to
> 'professional' services (tax preparation, haircuts, ect.) There is a
> base rate fro the state, and then each locality (town, city, ect) has
> their own tax added on. The sales tax is rather high here in
> Washington,
> but is balanced by the fact that we do not have a state income tax.
> Oregon on the other hand does not have a sales tax, but does have a
> state income tax!
>
> Jim Couch
>
>
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