Northern Pacific

[Rufus T. Firefly]

I tend to agree with Rufus - every state has its issues, some more than others.

And that all depends on who you are, your situation, and phase of your existence.

You makes your choices and you takes your chances....

[Roy]

You makes your choices and you takes your chances....

The version I've heard is: "You pays your money, and you takes your choices". And, how the hell did they get that frog into the space suit?

[chuck]

And that all depends on who you are, your situation, and phase of your existence.

Oh yeah. My wife and I "PERSONALLY" do well under the current schema. The "savings" in the taxes goes to paying the $500-$1500 dollars in repairs to the cars caused by the shitty roads (tires, rims, alignment, accelerated major repairs from wear/tear). Our kids have graduated and left the state. The screwed up K-12 system is less of a direct issue.

It is really, really disheartening to remember how great the system was when it was locally funded/controlled and the taxes were used for their intended purpose instead of disappearing into "general fund" slush funds and diverted for other purposes or given back to people that don't need the tax breaks. It should be noted that this isn't limited to one party or the other. Both sides seem to be equally adept at making matters worse and blaming everyone for the situation/problems.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

And, how the hell did they get that frog into the space suit?

Lots of lube.....

It should be noted that this isn't limited to one party or the other. Both sides seem to be equally adept at making maters worse and blaming everyone for the situation/problems.

True. As much as folks want to point fingers and assign blame, it's really self-inflicted.

[ScaleCraft]

One of the things that kills us financially here is 30 or more years ago, one particular party wanted more money to "general fund" to do things like large public toilets for drug users and h@@kers on the streets of major cities.
So, they passed this "law" that once a tax, fee, assessment, whatever is enacted, two years later the legislature can divert those funds to the general fund.
When "not my governor" raised our gas taxes in three steps to the second highest in the country, with the "promise" that this would fund our roads into the next generation.....it all goes to the general fund now, and so they institute tolls.
I could tell you stories about tolls.
Start with the judge who told the tolling "authority" who had set themselves up above any and all judicial oversight, "It is not a question of "if" you will get sued, rather a question of "when". And you will lose".
And they did...but still do the same BS.

[Tom Dempsey]

While I agree with your assessment of the general fund nonsense, it doesn't help when Tacoma jeweler's f*ck everything up with ill thought out referendum's. If Washington would get rid of the general fund and let taxes work for the reasons they are collected, the state would do a lot better. I don't think a move to Idaho or Montana is going to get him what he is after, it hasn't for any of my acquaintances on this side of the mountains who made that call. They all seem to move back sooner or later. As for the ongoing californication of the state, seems like one hard winter usually thins the herd over here pretty good, although it doesn't cure the harm they've already done. Maybe we need to through some snow on your side of the Cascades.

[ScaleCraft]

He's more thinking some place where you need to have doors and windows closed and air conditioning 345 days a year.

We have had quite a few larger businesses move to Idaho. The sitting governors have stated that they have to now pay income tax, and why would you do that?
The answer was, even with that, taxes overall are FAR lower and the bureaucratic regulations are far fewer.
Then there is traffic, and the cost of housing.
I have been in this old house 40 years, all I ever wanted was to live and die here, and they are making that more and more difficult.
My house was found by the county in 1945, after WWII, when they went looking for houses to add to the tax rolls.
Unfortunately, it was built probably around 1929, due to architectural design, oh, and 2X4 construction (REAL 2X4's) and a guy we ran into who "lived here as a foster child in 1941 and it was and old house then". Taxes are 100 times easy what they were in the 50's (we have records), and when you appeal, they give you a list of "similar houses that have sold in your area", and when you go look, they are bulldozed on 9 acres for a development...not anywhere close to what we have, even tho we are in the middle of an old fashioned double lot and taxed as one house on one lot as you can't fit another house on any side.
California, whose regulations are being embraced by Washington, has been chasing businesses out in droves.
http://www.breitbart.com/california/201 ... ince-2008/
Even Boeing moved its headquarters to Chicago in 2001 to escape this states BS.
I am waiting for MicroSoft to bail.
The regulations on logging and fishing have effectively killed off those industries and employment (can you say "spotted owl" and Judge Boldt?).

[Roy]

Taxes are not a local problem. Sure, California companies go to Texas for a better deal - but then, they move production to Mexico or China, and their corporate headquarters to the Cayman Islands.

60 Minutes recently told of how American workers are being fired, after they are forced to train their cheaper foreign replacements.

I've never met a dead Republican I didn't like.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

60 Minutes recently told of how American workers are being fired, after they are forced to train their cheaper foreign replacements.

Nothing new there... That started decades ago.

[Roy]

60 Minutes recently told of how American workers are being fired, after they are forced to train their cheaper foreign replacements.

Nothing new there... That started decades ago.

Yes, they mentioned that the law which allowed for this was originally intended to attract the best and brightest from overseas, and was passed in the eighties. The protections it had for American workers no longer work.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

60 Minutes recently told of how American workers are being fired, after they are forced to train their cheaper foreign replacements.

Nothing new there... That started decades ago.

Yes, they mentioned that the law which allowed for this was originally intended to attract the best and brightest from overseas, and was passed in the eighties. The protections it had for American workers no longer work.

Problem was that kids were not going into the STEM fields; they still aren't. Not enough financial reward. Very rarely was I ever able to recruit US kids to come to my labs.

[Roy]

Problem was that kids were not going into the STEM fields; they still aren't. Not enough financial reward. Very rarely was I ever able to recruit US kids to come to my labs.

I can't think of a better way to get a good paying job, than a degree in engineering. I was an engineering student, before my illness knocked me out. My father and grandfather were both petroleum engineers. My father did quite well.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Problem was that kids were not going into the STEM fields; they still aren't. Not enough financial reward. Very rarely was I ever able to recruit US kids to come to my labs.

I can't think of a better way to get a good paying job, than a degree in engineering. I was an engineering student, before my illness knocked me out. My father and grandfather were both petroleum engineers. My father did quite well.

Don't disagree. Yet kids want to get a business degree and make a lot of money right away,

Or, they want to go into an IT area.........and get rich.....

But engineering degrees are an investment in some seriously hard work to get to that slip of paper at teh end of the tunnel; however, wife has a BChE and a part of an EE.....early 80's collapse there were no jobs for BChE's.

[ScaleCraft]

The destruction started this morning. Bridges and duck unders removed, some track, almost all the wiring, control panels and systems, buildings, signals.
Can't go any further on dropping the benchwork until he gets some of the stuff out of the way.

He has folks who want some or all of it....but they are not driving down to look, and after today, there will be no way to SEE the locos and cars without unpacking it all again.

[jlong]

I grew up in WA state. Visit once a year. Can't even recognize the place. Infiltrated with Starbucks and wigged out kids playing pocket pool with their palm pals.