Have you or your family ever moved due to a law you felt was unjust or didn’t allow you to live the way you thought was right? It could be something like unreasonable property upkeep requirements, bans on certain activities, etc.
Just curious if this happens.
I don’t know of any cases that are THAT clearcut, but I do have one American friend who is strongly libertarian who now lives in Australia and has his own vineyard. I knew him earlier when he lived in Indonesia, and he always swore he’d never go back to the US (although as a US citizen he still is on the hook for taxes, so it doesn’t help his tax situation as much as it simply lets him stand on principle). Since his wife is Australian and they are both wine lovers, a lot of factors besides disliking US tax policy went into the decision to become Australian winemakers, I’m sure. Also, I don’t know anything about Australian tax law but I’m guessing he is just as unhappy with that as he was with the US.
I didn’t actually move because of a law, but an ordinance passed in my former suburb of residence definitely played a part in convincing me where I did and did not want to live. The suburb where I had lived for 10 years passed an ordinance based on a complaint by 3 residents (out of 40K or so) that citizens could not park RVs (or even large pickup trucks) on their property unless it was in a structure or enclosure of some kind. This was in a city of mostly tiny post-war bungalows on 0.13-acre lots with single-car detached garages. We didn’t own an RV or even plan to own one, but passing an ordinance for an entire city to serve only 3 homeowners (and in the face of almost universal citizen opposition) pissed us off. That’s when we realized we didn’t want to live anywhere we couldn’t park an RV–or a combine, or a dump truck full of manure–right out in plain sight.
I always did want to borrow an RV, though, and then build an enclosure around it that looked exactly like an RV. Unfortunately we moved so precipitously that I never had the chance.
Heh.
Charlottesville, Virginia has/had restrictions sort of like that. They wouldn’t let tow-truck drivers park their truck at home or on the street; not having their truck nearby was a hassle when they were called out in the middle of the night to tow someone.
Ask me again if conscription is reinstated.
I left living in Israel because I changed my mind about going into the army (mandatory there)…does that count?
I wish I could say it was because Columbus Ohio had just passed a smoking ban…but since I moved to CA which already had one, it wouldn’t really work.
There were many reasons Mrs. Homie and I moved from Missouri to Illinois, but among them was Missouri’s personal property tax on vehicles.
You and I must have moved here at virtually the same time (I came here in April 05). I never really got to experience a smoke-free Columbus, but I’ve rather enjoyed a smoke-free CA.
A friend of mine recently moved to a rural home a fair distance from city limits, because the city has declared that you can’t own more than two dogs within the city limits. Staying there meant they’d have to euthanize or otherwise dispose of one of their three beloved pooches (do you pick the old guy, or the puppy to axe?), so in protest… they sold their house and moved out of town.
I will never move to, purposely visit, or spend money in an area where there exists breed-specific legislation, does that count?
I once did not move due to local/state laws. I had a pretty good job offer but turned it down because it was in Jersey.
I moved out of Denver for a number or reasons, their public school system primarily but in retrospect I can claim it was also because of their idiotic laws that taken together made it the kind of place I would rather not live.
Case in point. 
Does IL get the money from you in another way; sales taxes or higher real estate taxes for example?
Oops wrong button
Not moving, because I don’t actually live there, but from January 2009 to approximately June 2010, I will not buy anything on which sales tax is charged in Oklahoma City. Which means I won’t be buying anything there. The stupid, stupid cow people voted (overwhelmingly) to extend a 1% sales tax increase for a year and a half. That’s not the problem. The sales tax has had the extra 1% tacked on for years.
Before I moved here it went to the MAPS project, which is the typical dubious urban renewal crap that cities get roped into-convention center, entertainment district that lacks entertainment, minor-league baseball field. Lately it has been going directly to the schools, something I can get behind, because they suck almightily here and I hope that my few bucks will somehow drag a kid out of the intellectual morass. But starting next year, it will go to improve the Ford Center, an indoor arena type building used for country music concerts, minor league hockey, monster truck rallies, and professional basketball, sorta.
You see, they built this thing a few years ago with MAPS money, then after Katrina, OKC ‘hosted’ the Hornets for 2 seasons. It was obvious to the dozen of us with brains that this was a transparent attempt to convince the team to move here permanently. A number of powerful businessmen had their companies buy huge blocks of tickets to every game and gave them away to employees, making it appear as if every game was a sell-out. When that ploy failed, no surprise, some local mill/billionaires (some of them the same businessmen) bought the Sonics, lied about their intent to keep them in Seattle in order to seal the deal, then immediately created a number of artificial controversies in order to move them, again no surprise to the people with brains crowd.
So now the MAPS tax (some $150 million)will go to improving the arena, which was already built to NBA specs. The Okie all-day-suckers actually believed that the NBA wouldn’t allow the team to be moved here without the money.
they will get none of mine.
I moved out of one neighborhood in 1992 because of a covenant being passed that banned all cars that were more than ten years old, supposedly as a guard against folks driving junkers. It was proposed and lobbied for my by next-door neighbor, and I feel it was aimed specifically at me; I was driving a restored 1974 Impala at the time, and we’d had a number of run-ins over other non-violations that the neighbor had unsuccessfully tried to use to get me in trouble. (Things like whether I could have a shed for my lawn mower, or whether my satellite dish was too big. He also called the local department of public works to report me every week for the fact that the next neighbor over would leave his empty trash cans out a few hours too long.) I could have appealed the ruling, but I was tired of fighting the neighbor all the f’ing time. He won.
When I moved out, I pointed out to the neighborhood board that the neighbor responsible for the new rule had a ‘50s Studebaker in his garage; the covenant didn’t differentiate between garaged and street-parked, so he had to rent an off-site garage for his beauty until he could get the covenant amended. Whee. He eventually ran afoul of other neighbors’ aesthetic sensibilities when he had a big streetlight installed over his driveway that was left on 24 hours a day, and was himself run out of the neighborhood. To this day, I do not miss the petty fights of neigborhood associations, and have happily lived in low-class apartments ever since.
I know a few people who run small businesses who have moved to different states due to taxes-- not sure if that fits the spirit of the OP, though. That seems less a disagreement with the state, and more a basc financial decision.
I used to live in Minneapolis, but after I learned that ferrets were illegal there I moved to an adjoining suburb when my lease was up.
That sort of reminds me of my old house, it was at a rural lakefront community. Nice wooded area and nice people for the most part, but the constant bickering of the leadership worried me. There were two or more groups of people that did nothing but fight all the time. The costs were also rising all the time, but residents were getting less and less benefit. We went from having lifeguards on the beach and two dedicated police officers to no lifeguards and only flaky security cameras, with the dues rising all the time. Plus there were tons of rules like you couldn’t have more than one outbuilding or any signs in your yard. They were rarely enforced, but they were in the covenants and could be. They had recently started requiring yearly septic tank inspections, when half the residents just used their homes as vacation homes for a few weeks.
All in all I was happy to move out into the county, now I just have to listen to the county, the state, and US government. :rolleyes: At least that’s one level of government gone.
Probably, but in MO is wasn’t so much the money as it was the huge pain in the ass. When it came time to renew my vehicle’s registration, I had to drive to the county courthouse, wait in line, and then wait for the person behind the counter to determine how much my vehicle was worth and compute the taxes based on that. You never knew beforehand - so I would have to take a pocket full of money and I hope I had enough - or it was back home to get more. Once I got my receipt that the taxes were paid, then I had to get the vehicle inspected, and if it needed any repairs, it didn’t pass - so more money. Once the personal property tax and the inspection were done, then and only then could I go back to the DMV, wait in another line, pay another fee, and get my new sticker.
Illinois just sends me a bill in the mail. I mail in a check, my new sticker comes back in the mail, and I’m in business.
I’m with you there. The aforementioned RV-hating suburb had a 3-dog limit and charged a ridiculous amount for dog licenses (something like $25 per dog annually). We brazenly violated both of those ordinances for the 10 years we lived there.