What is the most difficult state to live in?

Answer 1

That's easy, New York State! I spent practically my whole life in New York State, outside the city. I'm not even attempting to go into the horrors of expense living in NYC. But New York State has the absolute worst taxes outside of California. Not only that, crossing a bridge costs as much as buying yourself lunch. It costs me $100 a month to cross a bridge just to get to work everyday. When you buy a home, New York has a ballsy 3% mortgage tax, just for the honor of living among these greedy schmucks. So if you buy a $300k home (which probably needs $50k in repairs anyways because it's probably an old piece of crap) you're going to have to fork over an extra $3000 at the closing. New York State also has among the highest property and school taxes in the nation. For a $300k condo, one would probably pay in the neighborhood of $5k - $8k in taxes + condo fees. For an average 2,200 sq/ft house, about $9k - 15k in taxes a year. That's averages to about $1000/month just in taxes for your home! Owning a car is expensive too. New York charge $150 for licenses and $120 just for registering your car every two years. Gasoline taxes are also about 2nd or 3rd highest in the nation. My one and only reason for staying in New York State for now is because I own a small business here. When I close my business, I'm gone! Trust me, New York State loves to aggravate its small businesses with expensive LLC filing fees and tons of paperwork. For a few years up until recently, small businesses like mine were subjected to the "MTA Tax" where small businesses would be subject to extra taxes to pay for an over priced, union infested transit system in New York City because the state government didn't want to raise prices on its riders. So small businesses like mine, outside of the city, who never used mass transit footed the bill. A friend of mine has a Pizza shop 50+ miles outside of the city and still had to pay that tax. Finally they removed the tax for small businesses, but medium and large businesses still pay that tax. The roads in New York are in terrible condition. Pot holes are always slow to get repaired (again unions) and the state will NOT refund you (or chip in) if you hit a pot hole and cause damage to your car. You're on your own. Oh, and did I say, the weather sucks?? So, if you're interested in possibly moving to the empire state, be sure to get your head examined before you do so. Either that, or make sure you clear at least $150k a year in family income cause you're gonna need it.