Me neither. So just as this thread is winding down, I'll post my thoughts
to wind it up again.
To keep it barely aircraft related I'll start with places to live to fly
airplanes. I've traveled some and surely California, and Northern California
where I am, is one of the best overall places for a pilot to live: great
weather for 8 to 9 months of the year, little freezing weather unless you
live far up the mountains, very few thunderstorms. The coast gets its
stratus fog dependably, but I took my primary training decades ago in San
Jose and don't recall it being a problem. The scenery is fantastic and with
an RV you can reach the ocean, mountains, cities and desert within just 2 to
4 hours flight.
To be sure the cost of living is high here, though not really from taxes.
Housing in particular is higher than most places in the Union. Taxes are a
bit complicated. Once you buy a property, your property taxes can only
increase max at 2%/year, so if you don't move you gradually enjoy lower and
lower property tax, relative to inflation. Businesses take advantage of
this with very low property taxes using a legal scam: they create a small
corporation and register the corp as the property owner. Should they want
to sell to another business they merely change the directors of the corp.
Since the property continues to be owned by the same corp the property value
is not reassessed.
Other taxes are higher, California has both sales and income tax. However
I've seen statistics that place overall CA taxes in the middle of the
states, presumably because of the long-term low property taxes.
But are state taxes the biggest expense one has? I doubt it. For instance,
the March 2010 Aviation Consumer magazine editorial reports that data/chart
update costs for a GNS 480 and GMX 200 is $1300/year..for data that the
government provides to the private companies like Garmin for free. OK, most
RV'ers won't have that equipment, but the point is that by far most of my
and others' expenses involve commercial products, not state taxes.
So, most people griping about state taxes and saying they're going to move
are actually unhappy about their social or political surroundings. By all
means, don't stay in a place you're not happy living in. Me, I'm happy in
N. California. I just got back from London and Barcelona. Great places
both but every time I travel I am so grateful to return to California. I
live in a university town with a local airport 10 minutes drive away. My
airplanes buddies are a molecular research biologist, a civil engineer, a
successful businessman, etc. All have extensively traveled and most speak a
second language, as I do. I'd never find this overall aviation experience
elsewhere, and I've never seriously consider living anywhere else.
Ralph Finch
Davis, California
RV-9A QB-SA
From: owner-rv-list-server@matronics.com
[mailto:owner-rv-list-server@matronics.com] On Behalf Of Bob Collins
Sent: Thursday, March 18, 2010 3:29 PM
To: rv-list@matronics.com
Subject: RE: Taxes
OK, I can't resist
