No state tax but you still have to deal with the federal taxes on your winnings so it is a complete wash and you still pay the same amount in taxes on them. All in all we would be better off if the state did collect those taxes.

I’ve heard Austin is ok. I live in Florida so I cannot judge too harshly but think Ozzy did his best thinking inebriated.

@Scott321

If you want to like Austin or California, you will like either. Most people condition their mind to like what they want to like.

I can write long about why Texas or even Austin is not ideal for progressive minded people or retirees.

The biggest disadvantage about anywhere in Texas is you cannot drive anywhere good for vacation. It is a large state. Austin is inconvenient for travel all around - Amtrak, Greyhound, and especially air travel, not good for international travel.

It is excessively hot, very conservative, govt systems are not top notch, traffic is getting worse every day.

Most businesses don't pay property taxes for the first 10-20 years after they move to Texas. They can get even more incentives on top of that. They know that all they have to do is bribe a few politicians and they can get their tax breaks extended by threatening to relocate. There are so many loopholes it looks like Swiss cheese. International travel from most international airports except those on the coasts require connections. Air travel out of Texas is excellent to most anywhere in the country.

@glennlab In California property taxes are based on what you buy the property for and those NEVER change unlike Texas which has a higher tax rate and increases the property taxes as the valuation goes up....

@Lizard_of_Ahaz That only applies to private citizens, most businesses sell appraise.

@glennlab Seems a stupid system... I am betting air travel and shipping is better here though... If you doubt me take a look at airport maps in Southern Ca in my local area there are two cargo and one air travel airports as well as a private one...

@Lizard_of_Ahaz 2nd busiest airport in the world (2 Gen international avaiation airports, 2 cargo/executive airports, 37smaller airports ) Hub for Southwest, American and Delta all within 30 minutes of my house.

Dallas is easy to get out of.

@glennlab My count was for a suburban area less that 15 miles across... It is also a part of the LA metro area which I am not going to look up at this time but feel free to do so and compare the number of average daily flights for both if you wish.... Considering that this region has a far higher population base than Dallas Fort worth combined well the answer should be fairly obvious...

LAX alone is the world's busiest origin and destination airport....
[en.wikipedia.org]

@glennlab Yes, but Prop 19 limiting property taxes in CA at 1% is awesome.

@glennlab

I was talking about air travel from and to Austin, not Houston or Dallas.

Damn you really are a stupid motherfucker aren't you?... Many of those people who can afford to move back to California (I got this from a REPUBLICAN real estate agent...) as for the companies many of them regret the move because they can't find competent employees and the Taxes are just as high so they end up outsourcing American jobs to countries that exploit or use slave labor and the quality of their products goes to shit...
So if you think Texas is so fucking wonderful why don't you move there?...

[agnostic.com]

@Lizard_of_Ahaz

I had my green card taken away from me for refusing GW Bush a war sculpture. The murder and war in the US is the greatest unethical towards humanity, won't be coming.

The CNBC makes a passive income where your source came from. Joe Rogan has more viewers than anyone and he lives in Texas. Joe Rogan has more viewers than the hosts of CNN, MSNBC, and ABC combined. Is that the real reason they are trying so hard to take him out?

Plus Texas unployment is at 4%

May 2024, California had the highest unemployment rate in the United States, with an unemployment rate of 5.2. The unemployment rate was also high in Nevada, with an unemployment rate of 5.1 percent in February.

@Castlepaloma You know where the Shrub was from right?.... He was a Texass Republicunt....

You need to watch this because it is all about you...

@Lizard_of_Ahaz

Like this comedian, it sounds more like you. Labels do not stick on me well. Not heavy into blue or red or limited thinking. A bio organism and human being first. And Into strong individualism and independent, not into narratives very seldom.

To add
US, the largest homeless populations were in the CoCs containing New York (88,025) and Los Angeles (71,320), which were also the largest cities by total population.

Just the facts.

@Castlepaloma
There goes your confirmation bias again.... You are so blind you can't see the truth because you feel you are infallible...
I have always held that if you cannot question your beliefs then your beliefs are questionable and deserve to be questioned. Yes that is difficult but it means I operate from facts not faith. Constantly over the decades I have changed my opinions on many things but ALWAYS that has been evidence based while you deal strictly in conspiracy theories and propaganda that is easily debunked by checking relevant reliable and credible sources... In short you are a fool because you have gone out of your way to remain a fool.

Two small things about the homeless problems you are overlooking even while you admit you are overlooking them saying they are "the largest cities by total population". You are figuring by total numbers rather than per capita and many Red States have criminalized the homeless populations like Tennessee who has made it a felony to camp on public property... Also Red States have been known to dump their homeless on blue states we have a significant number who were handed bus tickets by cops in Nevada and Arizona over many decades and sent to Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco to reduce their homeless populations.
Try looking into the facts and not just the numbers people claim are the facts.

[nbcsandiego.com]

San Francisco has been caught doing the same things while being run by conservative Democrats and moderate Republicans...

[theguardian.com]

You might also want to consider that assistance for the homeless is better in Blue states vs Red States as well as factoring in climate which makes it easier for the homeless to survive. Larger and older cities also have more places out of the weather for the homeless to camp out like NY has the older abandoned subway tunnels. Looking only at total numbers makes you a fool and a tool...

What do you think of this opinion?

@St-Sinner I am retired and live here comfortably... City and state services are better here than in most of the country which for senior citizens especially is a huge benefit.Property taxes are some of the lowest in the nation and yes the state does have a rent control law that limits rent hikes to a maximum of 5% plus the rate of inflation instead of the gouging you get in Red States. If you don't have and can't afford medical insurance CalCare is very comprehensive. And despite what Republicans would have you believe income taxes are NOT higher here as state income taxes are deductible from federal income taxes... Also food prices here are lower than most states because there is so much competition and we have actual things to do...

@Lizard_of_Ahaz

Thank you. That's what I am discovering. California has gotten a bad wrap because of high taxes, high regulations but it turns out none of it would apply to retirees. State taxes after deductions come out to very low in any state. Property taxes and retirement income taxes are the big ticket items.

Can you please suggest some places that are nice communities but still close enough to big airports (an hour away). I am crazy about beaches. These places keep coming up:

................
Stockton
Vallejo and Fairfield
Santa Rosa
Salinas
Bakersfield (industrial and dry?)
Modesto
Santa Barbara
Visalia
Fresno

I will begin researching once I have a short list. Santa Barbara is beautiful but expensive although there are pockets where it is possible for single person to live and go around to enjoy (like the East side).

@St-Sinner Scratch Bakersfield and Fresno off your list those aren't good retirement areas. You might want to look into areas like Riverside and Redlands where I live isn't bad either as well. Santa Rosa is nice as well and up the hill from Santa Barbra is Lompoc which last time I was through there was ok.
[explorelompoc.com]

@Lizard_of_Ahaz

Thank you very much.

@St-Sinner Depends on what you are looking for in lifestyle choices to be honest in California you can find pretty much anything and any kind of climate. Since I can't be sure what you are looking for all I can suggest is to get a map and look for likely areas and go to the city websites to see what is there.

@Lizard_of_Ahaz

Yes, will do that. Thank you again.

@St-Sinner SCE will have the lowest electric rates in the state soon but they are in southern Ca. Next year they plan to decrease the rates by 7.1%...

@Lizard_of_Ahaz

I looked up SCE. Southern California Edison.
Thank you.

@St-Sinner

Don't know why anyone would move to the most expensive state in the Country, California, unless your rich or family. I know plenty of places in the world that are much cheaper and as beautiful or more so.

@Castlepaloma

It turns out that CA actually is not high tax and expensive state. Did you watch the video of a CA attorney I posted above?

Everyone said CA was expensive, high taxation, high regulations and high homelessness. The ex-Texas Governor Rick Perry even ran commercials in CA asking people to move to the low tax, low regulations, no snow and free people of Texas.

While some bad things about California are true and will matter to anybody like high homelessness. It is in Austin too but not on the CA scale.

But because I am talking about I as an individual moving to CA, this is what I have realized:

WHAT SHOUD NOT MATTER
.............
~ High Regulations - Most high taxation and regulations complaints should relate to business, not so much to an individual
~ State taxes - Two things. First, Texas has no income tax but has much higher property taxes and 1% higher sales tax. They recover the lost income tax from you in many ways. I pay $18K in property taxes on each house. Both taxes are killers and unavoidable. Second, state income tax always can always be reduced with many deductions and effective tax rate ends up being low. I do state taxes for my daughter in CA and I know it. So it seems I can manage this.

WHAT SHOUD MATTER
...............
~ High Homelessness - I have to be careful to avoid such areas, congested cities like LA, SF
~ High Crime - I have to be careful to avoid such areas and it's manageable unless I get into areas like South Side Chicago where a stray bullet can end you

MYTHS OF TEXAS
.............
~ Taxes are High - Many things they talked up about Texas are not true. It's not a low tax state. It is not a good state for a retiree because although there are no or less direct taxes, the state manages to take out of more money in indirect taxes
~ High religion and Very Conservative - I don't have a conservative mindset, I hate religion and these both ae in your face every day

Ultimately, CA or TX depends on your personality. They say don't pick a place based on the ratings, or rankings etc. Pick a place that suits your personality.

@St-Sinner That fucking putz is endlessly yammering about things he has no real knowledge of... Oh and FYI there is a fixer upper that just hit the market near me that is going for 300K a 4 bedroom home in a nice area not far from the local train station that can take you to the beach areas... and is 30 minutes from the ski resorts in winter...

Also something most people overlook is that property and sales taxes are NOT deductible on your income taxes but state income taxes and preparation of them are deductible. That money also gets invested in state infrastructure benefiting the people and business....

@Lizard_of_Ahaz

I am beginning to realize that much of the phobia created about CA is not true but I wonder how a smart state like CA and smart governors like Newsom let states like TX and FL get away with bad mouthing CA for decades? Could the bad mouthing not be confronted? I haven't heard much pushing back by CA. Or is it not needed like dogs barking at an elephant?

I wanted to point out that itemized deductions has lost much air after the standard deduction was raised to $25K for MFJ. It is hard to make your itemized surpass that after limitations through that shitty Trump tax cut. The rental property also lost its appeal after McConnell and the gang limited the deductions to $25K no matter how many properties you have. In short, the deductions you mentioned in federal taxes aren't much useful INMO.

@St-Sinner It is pointless in the extreme anyway as CA is still not just the largest state economy in the US but the 6th largest in the world as well. If the US does fragment when Trump get elected we are likely to see several other states join in for economic reasons making us no less than the second largest.. The ones I am thinking of are Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and Colorado...in varying degrees of probability of course with all states totaling somewhere around 20 to 30% likelihood. We could also pick up possibly open border at least arrangements maybe more with Canada and Mexico... This would make the resulting region the single largest economy in the world...

As for those limits they don't apply to huge corporate interests (check for yourself) and were designed to promote huge equity firms which now dominate the rental markets...

@Lizard_of_Ahaz

I hear you but do you know that states like Texas are so buried in Jesus and false pride that Texas talks of seceding alone. Imagine what Mexico would do next door. REVENGE !!

When I visited Mexico City 6 years ago, I engaged an English speaking tour guide. I asked him what they are taught in school history about General Santa Anna, many U.S. states being part of Mexico before?

He said they are working on a plan. More Hispanics will win public offices at every level and occupy high offices in less than 15 years. Much of that is happening. It is predicted that by 2040, Texas will be 67% Hispanic.

@St-Sinner One of the reasons I expect Mexico would wish to become a part of any California union...