> the average state and local tax burden for median incomes in Texas is significantly higher (12.73%) than in California (8.97%)
> The only people for whom Texas is a better deal for taxation are in the highest income brackets, higher even than tech workers at Apple.
I pay 4-5% of my individual income in local property taxes of all types, and we pay less than 4% of our household income. And that's after recent large increases in our property value. We live in the city limits of Austin, one of the more taxed places in TX. We bought outside of downtown, but actually nearer most tech companies than downtown. Our neighborhood is perfectly safe, paying less didn't affect that. If you're in TX paying 12% of your income in taxes you probably either have a low income and inherited more house than you could otherwise afford or you made a foolish decision on where to live(had to be in that trendy part of town).
I know Texas very well, I was married there, all my kids were born there, and it's definitely the place I felt most accepted (Texas was very different then), but I gotta say it's a bit trickier than this for folks nowadays, the government there really has gotten into everyone's business and even local cities can't pass their own laws without the state government overriding them and enforcing their ideas on everyone else. It's a shadow of the state I'd come to love. So I get why people would not be anxious to sign up for that deal ( even if they don't know that Austin is in some ways less liberal and accepting than Houston or Dallas which are much more cosmopolitan and diverse).
That said, California has literally nothing like HEB and if I could have elected HEB to be the government I would have taken that deal in a heartbeat, so you and I agree there.
> The only people for whom Texas is a better deal for taxation are in the highest income brackets, higher even than tech workers at Apple.
I pay 4-5% of my individual income in local property taxes of all types, and we pay less than 4% of our household income. And that's after recent large increases in our property value. We live in the city limits of Austin, one of the more taxed places in TX. We bought outside of downtown, but actually nearer most tech companies than downtown. Our neighborhood is perfectly safe, paying less didn't affect that. If you're in TX paying 12% of your income in taxes you probably either have a low income and inherited more house than you could otherwise afford or you made a foolish decision on where to live(had to be in that trendy part of town).
Bonus: cheap gas, cheap electricity, cheap beef, cheap groceries at H-E-B