Hi Bill, I hope you've been well. The clan and myself have moved to Connecticut in the last few months to be near family, been searching for a house in the area. During that search I've been factoring in such things as taxes and so forth.
Overall impression; People in Connecticut like to shoot themselves in the foot with high taxes and a host of backward government run systems. Washington state is a panacea of efficiency when compared to Connecticut.
You pay almost triple in real estate taxes as compared to Washington state here. Higher gasoline taxes, higher licensing taxes, state income taxes and on and on. It's a wonder there isn't a tax revolt in this area of the country!
I also see very little in the way of extra services. What I see is a voting population that rarely leaves and thus remain ignorant of the wasteful systems they operate under.
Here is one crazy example... When you register your car, it's like walking into one of those 1950 Motor Vehicle Registration places. Long lines and a system that is so convoluted it makes you ill examining all the common sense steps they could make to improve the experience and efficiency. Each local town has their own taxes for your vehicle. The towns are not tied into the motor vehicle department so you have to pay your taxes at the local town assessors office! This wastes HUGE sums of money. When you move from one town to the other, you have to go through a process of registering at your local town as well as the Motor Vehicle Department. When you sell your car, the license doesn't follow the car as it does in Washington, it follows the driver. Take one license off one car, make another for the new owner! Crazy waste everywhere!
I could go on and on and on....
The people here have been really nice though, even when I pick up on the occasional New England upper nose subtle language hits. Washington state is so unpretentious as compared to this area of the county. I loved that aspect of the people there.
The schools do appear better though, with motivated and caring teachers, even though Al Gore's movie was shown on "Earth Day" with no corresponding Skeptical points of view expressed.
I'll just have to provide the balance necessary to de-program my kids as needed I suppose. :-)
Best, Mike
p.s. Did I mention how much I like the two HUGE Casino's though! :-) |
