Quote:
Originally Posted by ClarkNasty
Exactly. Vegas westher objectively better than lol midwestern weather. It’s literally 7 months of perfect minimum depending on your preferences.
Basically, here to just confirm the last few pages of Clark's thoughts.
I don't know about teachers, police, and fire in other spots, but they have F'd over the typical Illinois resident. I was living in Seven Bridges complex in the Chicagoland suburbs for 4 of my last 5 years in Illinois-- left about 5 years ago now. It's a golf course, movie theatre, ice arena, restaurant area on the border of Woodridge, Naperville, Lisle. I was off I-355 and a bit south of I-88 (the toll roads which have been the Repubs special plundering of IL tool going back to the 80s). I was driving past Downers Grove South one day and noticed they were picketting and ready to go on strike. So, I looked up their grievances. Their mean salary (teachers only, not including the much higher paid admin) was over $70k/yr. They get a great healthcare plan on top. At the time, they had to make zero contributions to their pension, which was calculated as 2% x number of years worked (5 minimum) x last year's pay with 75% max. Of course, last year is a joke where they pick up the $4-5k/yr asst coach jobs and such. Basically, the estimates are this is equivalent to a $110k/yr job... to teach relatively affluent suburban HS kids. The state had a temporary increase of income taxes from 3% to 5%. In their amazing defense, it was temporary, though it dropped back to 3.66% last I knew/paid. The property taxes in these suburbs are 2.5% to 3% of homes. Sales tax is high. Gas tax is high (in addition to tolls which are omnipresent). Teachers were pissed because they weren't getting as much as surrounding suburbs -- looking at you Naperville North, Naperville Central, Hinsdale South, Hinsdale Central, etc. My guess is the Glenbards and Bollingbrook were a bit lower, but that's just a guess. If you spend time in poker rooms around the burbs or in Sunbelt states far away, you come across a literal ****ton of people living off their pensions from being a teacher or police or fire worker in Illinois. They're pulling down more than what most educated, college degree'd (but without a specialty like engineering or accounting) people in Chicagoland make while no longer working at all. I realized there was no hope and it will get worse (though the tax reform by the Feds will help quite a bit as lower corp tax rate will lead to a lot of stock buyback and dividends which should make the IL pension shortfall problem much less -- another way the tax reform helps the avg guy but isn't talked about much, though the IL investment managers have severely underperformed even in the last great half dozen years).
Regardless, I added it up and wanted better weather and tax situation. To admit my biases, I didn't have a happy childhood adolescence (which should be ldo for most of you to surmise given my alcohol and drug use as a late teen was so prolific I was locked away), so was in a hurry to leave as soon as my wife gave the thumbs up (I almost never brought it up). I am someone who did appreciate what the area did have. I spent much of my teens biking up and down the Fox River. I took frequent trips to Starved Rock. I loved my time at UofI even though it was a fallback to go there because I and those close to me didn't know how to get schollie money for academics (whole 35 on ACT thing and some time at IMSA should've paid off more). I've been to the awful Lake Michigan beaches which aren't a great time until one is North of Milwaukee or well into Michigan. No one wants to be crammed with NW Indiana's finest on a regular basis.
Regardless, took the plunge and live in the Summerlin West area of Vegas now. Property taxes are 0.5%. HOA is about the same in my area. That's significantly less than Chicagoland. Get about the same value of home. Gas taxes are roughly the same but no tolls (and I use the 215 often). No state income taxes, which is basically my Roth IRA contribution for free every single year plus enough to pay for one trip back to see in-laws. On top of all that, we get better service. We get trash twice per week included in HOA. There are more parks which are better. Palo Verde high school is every bit as good as the ones in nicer Chicago burbs and we have plenty of private options. yeah, July and August suck -- go to Tahoe/Reno, San Diego, Utah for a trip. Was a bit cold in early December, drove an hour 15 min down to Laughlin and played with my young boys in the Colorado on beaches as good as Indiana dunes with 80+ degree temps. Might drive to Death Valley next week or take the 5 yr old to snowboard somewhere. Quality of life wise, there just isn't a comparison. I'm not even getting into the entertainment and food, which are cheaper than Chicago while matching the quality. Of course, my "talents" open up more of Vegas to me.
The public unions have destroyed IL finances. It caused those with the means to look elsewhere. Many found what they're looking for. And, we don't sell people on going back. My closest cohort of friends at UofI were all raised in various parts of Illinois. Out of the 8 of us, 4 no longer live in Illinois. 2 of the other 4 spent quite a bit of time away and moved back to be near parents as they have young kids. That's dreadful for a state. But, I've read Lyman Stone and he says the problem is not people leaving IL, but more a failure to attract new people. Just tough for me to believe retention (of the state highly educated) is not an issue based on all the people I know from the flagship public university of the state.
