I relocated to Florida from New York City last year. After almost 20 years in NYC, I sold my apartment and left for good.
Since I have been early retired for several years, most of my income now is dividends and interest, so I was no longer paying a ton of state and city income taxes as a resident of NYC. But, in my experience, the public services were declining significantly along with the quality of life. A homeless camp had been created around the corner from my apartment building, The subways, roads, and other services that I relied on had been declining for years.
And frankly there was a political element. I will avoid going into details about that, out of respect for the forum rules, but both the mayor of NYC and the governor have made it clear that they don’t value people like me. In fact, several years ago the governor of NY actually stated that people with political opinions like mine were not welcome in the state.
Why should I continue to give my money to people who hate me?
There is an expression I like: “Go where you’re treated best.”
So that’s what I did.