Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Moving to Texas

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 115 posts

Re: Moving to Texas

#101

Post by igetspam »

boardwaalk wrote: post #97
mplanchard wrote: post #81

As an anecdotal data point, I have lived in Austin since 2014, but my wife and I are planning on moving elsewhere sometime in the next couple of years. Austin is a fantastic city if you can afford to live in it. Great neighborhoods, great food, relatively laid back culture. The summers are brutal, but borderline tolerable. However, winter storm Uri was a real eye opener, and the (lack of) legislative response to it,…

In the same situation: Moved here around 2014, have the same observations about being subject to state gov, and looking to move in the next few years. Another consideration is how the summer are just going to get worse here over the next few decades, so I don’t feel like investing (home improvements etc).

Same to all of the above. We're headed out in the next 6-18 months. The wide range is due to our kid's school. If that wasn't a consideration, we'd be shopping already.

Re: Moving to Texas

#102

Post by wpietri »

erik_seaberg wrote: post #96
wpietri wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nah. If children were all that important, they'd be doing a lot more than passing laws to control women's bodies. Heck, the whole problem of abortion could be solved by controlling men's bodies. We are, after all, involved in 100% of unwanted pregnancies. Mandatory reversible vasectomies at puberty for all men would be a big step forward. And for men who slip up and impregnate somebody who doesn't want to carry to te…

> Mandatory reversible vasectomies They can’t mandate that reversal shall work; the failure rate starts at 5% and goes up over time.

Surely a small price to pay if you believe, as the anti-abortion people do, that you're saving lives.

More practically, I expect that research into higher-quality reversible vasectomies would be swift and well-funded if they were mandatory in Texas.

Re: Moving to Texas

#103

Post by onecommentman »

An opinion article in the New York Times about how people in California are/should be moving to Texas. With no mention in the text about NYC or NY State. Might be a fine article, but not the first source I’d choose for an insightful discussion about this topic.

Re HN discussion, Austin << TX. Many Texans who know both States would posit Austin is to TX what Berkeley is to CA. Take that for what it’s worth.

Re: Moving to Texas

#104

Post by dillondoyle »

tomatofarmer wrote: post #78
dillondoyle wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Source? He released 10 years of tax returns [1], showing modestly high income. His disclosures in Congress - which he would be breaking the law if he lied about, e.g. Trump potential fraud - show higher net with real estate holdings. [2] Still probably 8 digitals starting with a $1 or less. There are sources that says his father in law is worth $500mm. If you think the father in law will give the couple all his net w…

My source is the 2018 senate election. Robert was defeated despite overwhelming publicity from out of state sources, and being backed by a father in law that 'conservatively' has a 500mm net worth (as of 2 years ago, during which time the S&P 500 has nearly doubled). Texas was too smart for him.

Ok. So again, that's his father in law not Beto. but yeah the father in law did spend a few hundreds of thousands on pacs supporting Beto's political career. Which is chump change at that level.

Re: Moving to Texas

#105

Post by dillondoyle »

igetspam wrote: post #100
tomatofarmer wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article is about how many people are moving to Texas. Abbott must not be too hostile.

He's openly hostile. He's specifically told people coming from CA to not "blow it" when they get here. He makes regular threats against Austin for calling him out on being a hypocrite and trying to overstep authority. Can't help it if people don't pay attention. It's genuinely harder to see until you're in the middle of it though.

And hostile depends heavily on your perspective.

If you are a woman who values access to healthcare, specifically abortion, he is very hostile to your wellbeing and interests.

But there are plenty of others who feel the exact opposite in Texas since obviously he is elected. Just brushing aside for a different thread arguing about lopsided representation lol.

Re: Moving to Texas

#106

Post by betwixthewires »

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #89
betwixthewires wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The property tax is insane and regressive but it’s a wash. How are property taxes regressive? Working class people bear the tax burden with income taxes, land owners bear the tax burden with property taxes, I'd argue that having 0 income tax and funding the state through property tax is as progressive as it gets. Of course, rental property has to pass that tax on to renters to remain profitable, but still that allo…

It works like this: Here's a guy who makes $50K a year, has $20K in assets other than his house, and his house is worth $150K, of which $30K is equity. Taxes are proportional to that $150K. Total assets / house price is 1/3. Here's a billionaire - literally worth $1 billion. He doesn't have a $3 billion house. So the ratio of total assets to amount covered by property tax is much more favorable to the billionaire. Hi…

Yeah, if property taxes are the only taxes I see your point.

But when you also have sales taxes or value added taxes, chances are the billionaire is living a little more exorbitantly than the regular guy. If you want to get more progressive than that you can introduce luxury item taxes.

More importantly though, the brunt of the tax burden is still resting on the higher value properties. If we decide that progressive means "pays more of a percentage of their wealth/income" then you're right, but if we decide it means "most of the overall tax burden falls on richer people" then it is still more progressive than income tax schemes that exist now.

Re: Moving to Texas

#107

Post by betwixthewires »

foobiekr wrote: post #85
betwixthewires wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The property tax is insane and regressive but it’s a wash. How are property taxes regressive? Working class people bear the tax burden with income taxes, land owners bear the tax burden with property taxes, I'd argue that having 0 income tax and funding the state through property tax is as progressive as it gets. Of course, rental property has to pass that tax on to renters to remain profitable, but still that allo…

Property taxes are regressive because they tend to be flat rate - two properties with the same value in the same place will have the same tax assessment regardless of the income of the owners. The lower income owner pays a greater % of their income to taxes. Relatively speaking, a steep progressive income tax regime is less regressive than a property tax since the burden is entirely on home value which is largely out…

I wholeheartedly agree on your criticism of property appraisal as a cornerstone of property tax schemes. I wonder if there is a clean solution to this problem, I personally know people who see their tax burden increase because some county assessor says they could sell their property more now, even though they get no tangible benefit from it. It makes me reconsider the California property tax scheme where peoples taxes are assessed based on the value of them when purchased.

Re: Moving to Texas

#109

Post by kcplate »

techsupporter wrote: post #30

I was born in Texas and lived the first part of my adult life there. All of my family still lives there. But many years ago, I decamped for Seattle (before the tech boom really got started here) and, bluntly, I'm never going back. I wish everyone who is moving to Texas the best of luck and truly hope you succeed. But if you think moving to Dallas or Austin or Houston and putting a Beto sign on your front window is an…

It’s funny to me that I see some comments talking about moving to Texas for the economic reasons, that also seem to follow up with commentary about changing the political landscape.

Re: Moving to Texas

#110

Post by pwinnski »

bradlys wrote: post #95
techsupporter wrote: post #30

I was born in Texas and lived the first part of my adult life there. All of my family still lives there. But many years ago, I decamped for Seattle (before the tech boom really got started here) and, bluntly, I'm never going back. I wish everyone who is moving to Texas the best of luck and truly hope you succeed. But if you think moving to Dallas or Austin or Houston and putting a Beto sign on your front window is an…

This sums up the feeling I had when visiting Texas and why the only reason Texas tempts me is because of economic reasons and that’s it. I noticed how often the lone star was everywhere . And I kept getting this feeling - “people think a little too highly of Texas and themselves here for being in Texas…” That damn lone star is so common that it shows up in god damn furniture sets. How often are you getting a set of f…

Texans love Texas like Kanye loves Kanye.
Post reply on HN