http://www.nwcn.com/home/?fId=125967803&fPath=/news/local&fDomain=10212

Good place to live, and plenty of room for people to move here. All we need is five more diplomacy players.

Any takers?

Pretty sure where I live is near the bottom of your rankings!
But I just love my neighborhood and neighbors, a wonderful little place to actually LIVE, we have a grand time together in our hellish location.

We fantasized about moving to the Portland area. But too many relatives in the northeast.

Huh? Walla Walla is in Washington? I always assumed it was somewhere in the outback of Australia. Now I'm not so embarrassed that you're kicking my buitt in fantasy baseball (though I gotta ask what's going on this week?)

We found that people in the northwest are incredibly nice and friendly. It's not the phony friendly that I sometimes feel in the south, or the raucous friendly you might experience in Texas (howdy!) but instead a genuine warmth and kindness that is very endearing. We also like the temperate weather, less expensive cost of living, and health consciousness.

Ray Jay wrote:We also like the temperate weather, less expensive cost of living, and health consciousness.

It's pretty hard to find a more expensive place to live than MA, unless you move to NYC, DC, or LA.

I want to blame Massachusetts tax and regulations for that, but I found that Oregon tax and regulation to be very similar. We had to wait 10 minutes at a gas station that wasn't crowded because Oregon law mandates that all gas stations be full serve. (Why these low paying and unhealthy jobs are protected is beyond me.) The local press is just as left leaning and I've heard that taxes are high.

Ray Jay wrote:I want to blame Massachusetts tax and regulations for that, but I found that Oregon tax and regulation to be very similar.

Not sure of the legislative breakdown in OR, but I'll wager it's not close to MA. I'll also wager they've not sent the last how many House leaders to prison?

There are many things that lead to a high cost of living in MA--corruption, heating oil (instead of natural gas), the centralized nature of government (towns get a portion of their taxes back from the Commonwealth), the over-sized government that is full of cronyism (who's the latest friend of a pol to get a $100+K job that does nothing?). Tollbooths manned by people getting $80K a year? Environmental Police (oh yeah, we got 'em!)? The Commonwealth owns so much property that if it were to dump it all, housing prices would not just bottom out, they would crater. Inefficient highway systems? You betcha! Most towns have ridiculous demands of businesses. Every town has its own police and fire, which is very inefficient and leads to even more corruption (unions and overtime control--a deadly combination). There is nothing wrong with MA that could not be cured. It would just require everyone moving out for three years while I re-engineered it.

Let me know if you want a centrist on your team to moderate your worst impulses.

BTW RJ, there's a neat little place in Portland called Vancouver WA. Of course there are the fools that live in Vancouver and work in Portland, it creates a taxation problem maybe akin to MA.

It may be that the available job is in Portland, hopefully not pumping gas ;)

Tax Rate Comparison:

Mass:
Personal Income - 5.3% flat rate
Sales - 6.25%
Corporate Income - 8.25%
Estate - over $1 million
Gas - 23.5 cents/gallon

Oregon
Personal Income - graduated from 5% to 11%
Sales - none
Corporate Income - about 7%
Estate - over $1 million
Gas - 25 cents/gallon

They seem relatively similar to me ...

I see that Wash. has no income tax whereas Oregon has no sales tax ... clearly the right answer is to live and work in Wash. and shop in Oregon. The toll over the Columbia River bridge was only 50 cents. No wonder people were so nice ...

Ray Jay wrote:Let me know if you want a centrist on your team to moderate your worst impulses.

Gladly.

Just one example (may have posted it before): I know a family that bought a "low income" condo. They're not low income! How did they get it? It was subsidized and built--and no one could be found to occupy it! The reach of government here is just silly.

FYI: the first thing I'll do--get rid of the toll booths. Next: re-engineer the Pike/128 interchange. That thing is mad!

I agree with both of those changes. I'm just not going to let you throw any old people or Muslims into recklessly polluted waterways by profit seeking middle aged jet flying hedge fund white guys.

Ray Jay wrote:I agree with both of those changes. I'm just not going to let you throw any old people or Muslims into recklessly polluted waterways by profit seeking middle aged jet flying hedge fund white guys.

Dang! That was number three on my list!