Tennessee Sounds Good To Me
XRLQ told me I should blog about why he should leave California. More to the point, he wanted to convince his wife of their need to leave California. I would recommend coming to Tennessee and here’s Exhibit A:
New Yorkers pay the highest state and local taxes in the nation, shelling out nearly $131 for every $1,000 of income in 2002, according to a new study.
Tennessee taxed its citizens the least — they paid just under $84 for every $1,000 of income.
Cali ranks 17 and pays $106 per $1,000 in income.
September 9th, 2004 at 3:08 pm
Sounds good to me.
Virginia is great, but the Tax issue and general cost of living is driving me nuts. Plus, with the constant terror warnings, I am pretty much ready to get out.
I was working on my application to the Tennessee and Georgia Bars last night. As soon as I can waive in and find a job, I’ll be back.
Heck, I’ll be back in Chattanooga the first week of October 🙂
September 9th, 2004 at 4:09 pm
Then again, according to the Scorecard, TN is the 7th most polluted state (CA=26), has the 6th highest concentration of cancer-causing pollutants (CA=36), and ranks 7th worst in air pollution (CA=25). When ranking states by “smarts,” Tennessee ranks 42nd out of 50, but then California is 44th, so TN would be an improvement. Same for murder, in which TN has the 8th highest rate, but CA has the 5th highest rate. ( http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/state08.prn )
September 9th, 2004 at 5:25 pm
Query whether the pollution factor is statewide or weighted by population area. From Frisco to Oregon, we’ve got a whole ‘nuter “state” there that almost no one lives in. I’ll bet their air is pristine, but that doesn’t do much good for those of us who have to work in major cities.
I guess I’d better not move to TN, though. Wouldn’t want to lower the average IQs of both states.
September 10th, 2004 at 9:44 am
Most of the problem in Tennessee has to do with the regional transport of air emissions. Some of it is coming from in state, but the vast majority is floating in on the jet streams and, especially in eastern TN, getting caught up by the Smokey Mountains and dropping.
Its a problem that the Clean Air Act wasn’t designed to address, and can not address. The Presidents Clear Skies Act is designed to address it, but thats not going anywhere. The Clean Air Intersate Rule should take care of some of the problem, but the authority to apply it to nationwide doesnt exist.
THere are lots of other little problems as well. Most, again, are caused by the Clean AIr Acts failure to predict future events. In the past, the act was Amended at regular intevals (71, 77, 1990). Its now been 14 years since the last improvements to it have been made and the nations air has improved tremendously, but those prior problems were all the proverbial “low hanging fruit”. What we are dealing with here is the more difficult to solve, and vastly more expensive, high hanging fruit.
Luckily, the health impacts of these remaining problems (while potentially serious if you believe some of the science) are not nearly as bad as the enviros (including Environmental Defense) claim.