Political specialization

Posted by Marc Hodak on July 1, 2008 under Futurama | 4 Comments to Read

Forbes just came out with an issue about Best Places to Raise a Family Most of these places seem very geared to young families, with great schools and kid-friendly open spaces. Other issues have touted best places to retire. These tend to have lower property taxes (which often, though not always, translate into poorer schools) and easy living.

I’m wondering if in our more mobile society, certain political jurisdictions will realize they can’t be all things to all people, and begin to specialize. Florida itself seems to be doing that with senior friendly areas (with pretty crappy public schools), and family friendly areas with sky-high property taxes.

I know that some individual states and counties are starting to give significant property tax breaks to retirees as a way of keeping them, presumably as sales tax and fee payers with higher-than-average disposable income (not to mention a significant voting block).

KipEsquire said,

You mention property taxes twice but leave out income taxes — as in, “Nevada and Florida don’t have any.”

(And don’t think that income taxes don’t matter to retirees — especially those who have enough wealth and income to pack up and move at their convenience.)
M. Hodak said,

Income taxes certainly matter to retirees, but I don’t think they matter differentially, i.e., more for retirees than for younger folks raising families.

My sense is that retirees are more sensitive to property taxes because they believe that the revenues generated by those taxes disproportionately benefit school-aged kids (and, of course, their parents).
Maggie said,

I’d rather retire where the kids are. Not so I’m tripping over them, but so I get to see and hear them having a good time of it. I might even be willing to pay a little extra for it.
Chris Meisenzahl said,

Glad I found your blog! I just jumped over here from Cafe Hayek.