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Originally Posted by sugarbush
I don't care about north/south devision....and I am pretty sure that the area of TN they are talking about is rural.....probably less than 9 people per sq mile.... I grew up in Vermont which is rurul by Boston's standards, but have lived in 9 states since and find the laws to be more restrictive (regardless of population density) in "southern states". Taxes are higher too  Its just an observation as I have been refered to as a "---- yankee" on more than one occassion within the past few years and I sorta take offence to it. |
I don't know how long it has been since you lived in Vermont so I thought I would share.
These are general statements, there are exceptions but the exceptions are disappearing.
I can tell you that the laws in Vermont are changing drastically, and quickly.
The average housing cost is over $200K, and in the southern part of the the state property can sell for $30K an acre.
I envision that within 5 to 10 years the regulations here will be as bad as anywhere else. as an example, in the last couple of months restrictive new laws went into efffect that will not allow you to touch your septic and leach field without a new engineering study/permit. Due to political climate this will probably mean that replacing a faulty leech field will require replacing the existing septic with a "Mound" system to the tune of 20K.
Inspections and such are still not required for most things in a residential building, but zoning restrictions are here to stay and can severly limit what you can do with your property.
And taxes here have skyrocketed since Act 60/68 was passed. In fact our property taxes jumped almost 30% this year alone. Taxes on a $200K house will run over 3K a year in most towns. The worst part is that all the average person gets for paying their property taxes is the roads being maintained and their child educated. Fire departments and rescue squads are volunteer, and most towns do not have a police department.
And then we still pay sales tax and income tax to fund the rest of state government.
Electricity cost is one of the highest in the country.
In many respects much of Vermont is becoming an extension of Boston and New York without the services. In fact in many towns there are very few people left that were born here and the million dollar MCMansions are taking over.
And as the "Locals" leave the area town government is being taken over by the people moving in from Boston and New York (usually with time and money to burn) and they are turning the state into a carbon copy of where they came from. This means more regulations added daily as they try to keep things as they envision the state should be and they try to keep everyone else out of the state.
Almost daily you see articles in the newspaper about new town ordinances to regulate almost everything because it bothers someone. Usually the underlying problem is a personality conflict between a "Local" who is doing something (usually on their own property as they have been doing for years) and the new person who doesn't like it. Sometimes sanity prevails, but many times new regulations are put into place and add to the pile of rules of what you can't do on your own property.
I have lived here for almost 38 years and Vermont is no longer the state I grew up in. There are times I think that perhaps someplace else would be better, but then I look around and see the same thing happening everywhere and I decide to stay put. There are still good people here, but the cost of living, high taxes, lack of services, and attitude of most of the new residents are rapidly offsetting the good things.
Combine this with winter and mud season and I question my decision to stay here every year.
Scott
