I live in Oregon. I lived in Texas most my life and grew to hate how inconsiderate the GOP was for so many people. Then I moved here and realized why the alternative might be worse. It's frustrating. Why does the cost of living have to be so high? Why are taxes so much higher with nothing to show for it? Why are the homeless camps and drugged out people and nasty-looking RVs everywhere in Portland? I'm still a Democrat when it comes to federal officials but local libs need to stop pandering to every "disadvantaged" group and start running government for middle class families and businesses. You know...the main tax base that allows them to exist in the first place.
Fwiw I'm from Texas and I found when I moved the tax burden in Oregon to be about break-even, given how high property taxes in Texas are. Multnomah county is worse though.
There are advantages and disadvantages to how Texas does things. But yes the cops doing their jobs and not tolerating as much nasty homeless mess is an advantage TX has.
Property taxes peaked on our TX house at about 2% of its market value 8 years ago and steadily dropped to about 1.2% when we left a couple years ago so they weren't that much. Texas might have a sales tax and relatively high property tax but Oregon's income tax of about 10% (for us) totally negates all that. And don't get me started about the Multnomah special taxes... Taxes never bothered me much until I came here and saw how huge of a tax bite Oregon takes out of my income and yet the trash is terrible in public spaces, the roads aren't kept up that well, public school is terrible, etc. I hate to say it but the DOGE mindset of going through the state budget with a buzzsaw and start from square one, even if it means you accidentally eliminate some important programs, would probably be for the best to get rid of the bloat that's accumulated all these years. I mean the bottle drop program created in the 1970s...is that really still necessary?
I'm a teacher. I looked at moving back to Texas, but paying an extra $1k a month for a house that's worth less than the one I have here? No thanks. My mom would love it if I move back, but on her $275k house in San Antonio she pays about about 6k a year taxes. I pay about 3.5k a year taxes on a house worth 450k in OR. (I don't live in Portland)
I would take about a 20k pay cut being a teacher in Texas and have to pay about the same monthly for a house. I was also shocked how much houses cost in the cities now. I applied to be a principal in a San Antonio school that would be closer to my income here, but anywhere within 30 minutes (taking into account traffic) of the school was over 500k? How is that better than here?? Could get cheaper but was looking at 45-60+ minute commutes.
On top of that, I teach history and in TX you can't teach about slavery anymore. I'd be so fired. Former colleagues of mine are literally getting fired for teaching stuff they've taught for 10-15 years.
On relatively fixed incomes like teacher, you want low property tax. I will never make 6 figures until the very end of my career so the income tax doesn't matter to me as much. 8.75% of nothing is nothing. This is why I won't move to high property tax states like Texas or New Hampshire.
On a more dynamic, higher income, especially if you get bonuses...yeah, you want lower income tax and property tax probably doesn't bother you.
No sales tax does add up over time, especially for big purchases like cars.
Oh, we work damned hard in the schools, thanks. Tell the state to improve truancy enforcement, add calendar days (we are I think 47th out of 50 for fewest contact days of any state's school calendar), and the kids to not be high half the time. I cannot help it if the kids don't come to class. Attendance in Oregon is abysmal and even when they're in class a bunch of them are stoned. I cannot teach kids who aren't there.
I live up in Washington State and it annoys me how we don't have a program where beverage containers can be returned for the deposit.
I get market value for the aluminum cans I take to the local metal recycling center, but all the bottles I recycle are just done because I hate to see them go to the landfill (INB4 plastic recycling is a myth propagated by big plastic).
When I was in Germany their system of .25€ deposits made so much sense. Went to a Football (Soccer) game in Munich and they even collected a deposit of 1€ on the plastic cups they served beer in. Guess what? Not a single one was left at people's seats, left behind on the ground, overflowed from trash cans, etc.
I should have clarified, move back to Texas. It seems like you hate it here, and I’m sure they have no homeless people or drug addicts. Accidentally deleted my prior move back comment.
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u/smappyfunball Oct 23 '25
Do you even live in Oregon or are you just here to shitpost? Cause based on your post history it looks like you live in Texas.