Florida is overall one of the best run states in the country. The public pensions are largely pre-funded and there's no state income tax. The biggest issue is the property insurance marketplace.
You're measuring success by spreadsheets, not quality of life. As a Florida resident for half a decade, the state is a dumpster fire. It is designed as a place for the very wealthy to live well at the expense of everyone else (with the tax framework built to be regressive vs progressive).
~26% of Florida drivers carry no auto insurance (raising prices for everyone else). Property insurance market is collapsing due to roofing fraud and climate change risk repricing. If you have kids, public school is not an option due to quality. Pedestrian deaths are higher than the national average. Despite transparency laws, there is still substantial corruption and nepotism in government. Electric rate increases exceed other areas due to primarily investor owned utilities regulatory capture and their heavy reliance on natural gas fired generation. There is an extreme shortage of healthcare workers and teachers currently (construction and agriculture aren't far behind due to recent legislation). The people of Florida elected Rick Scott for governor twice. Before he ran for governor, he was CEO of Columbia/HCA. The company presided over the biggest Medicare fraud in history, and the company had to pay a $1.7 billion fine. Rick Scott claimed he didn’t know anything about this fraud, but he had to plead the fifth ~75 times during the investigation. Rick Scott is now a Florida senator. You can also carry a concealed weapon with no concealed carry permit as of July 1st. There is an affordable housing crisis, with Florida ranking third for homelessness.
But yes, warm weather and no state income tax.
(I can provide citations for all of my assertions above but won't pollute the thread unnecessarily)
That's the issue. Florida's effective tax rate is about equal to Georgia which has a ~5.5% income tax. And it's going to continue to increase with homeowner's insurance prices even outside of the Miami metro area skyrocketing (which you pay for even if you rent, in terms of rent increases owners enact to cover costs).
toomuchtodo|2 years ago
~26% of Florida drivers carry no auto insurance (raising prices for everyone else). Property insurance market is collapsing due to roofing fraud and climate change risk repricing. If you have kids, public school is not an option due to quality. Pedestrian deaths are higher than the national average. Despite transparency laws, there is still substantial corruption and nepotism in government. Electric rate increases exceed other areas due to primarily investor owned utilities regulatory capture and their heavy reliance on natural gas fired generation. There is an extreme shortage of healthcare workers and teachers currently (construction and agriculture aren't far behind due to recent legislation). The people of Florida elected Rick Scott for governor twice. Before he ran for governor, he was CEO of Columbia/HCA. The company presided over the biggest Medicare fraud in history, and the company had to pay a $1.7 billion fine. Rick Scott claimed he didn’t know anything about this fraud, but he had to plead the fifth ~75 times during the investigation. Rick Scott is now a Florida senator. You can also carry a concealed weapon with no concealed carry permit as of July 1st. There is an affordable housing crisis, with Florida ranking third for homelessness.
But yes, warm weather and no state income tax.
(I can provide citations for all of my assertions above but won't pollute the thread unnecessarily)
judge2020|2 years ago
That's the issue. Florida's effective tax rate is about equal to Georgia which has a ~5.5% income tax. And it's going to continue to increase with homeowner's insurance prices even outside of the Miami metro area skyrocketing (which you pay for even if you rent, in terms of rent increases owners enact to cover costs).