We recently moved from California, which has steep state income taxes, to Nevada, which has no state income tax. I expected Nevada to have vastly less services and was wrong. Nevada functions better than California. Roads, parks, infrastructure are in better shape here than in California. Major freeways and roads in L.A. and the S.F. Bay area often need maintenance. Roads and highways in Vegas are well-maintained. Sue and I noticed the same thing when we lived in Utah. Things just work better there than in the constantly-squabbling California. This might be a function of size. Maybe California is just too big to be governed effectively. However there are plenty of political squabbles in Nevada and Utah too, yet they get resolved faster.
A few examples:
A few years back a Utah state legislator determined their public pension system would face major financial problems in the coming years if things didn’t change. The state revamped their public pension system in one year. Californians have known for years their public pension system is hugely underfunded yet nothing of substance has been done.
Nevada and Utah let businesses apply online to start LLC. California still doesn’t have this basic capability. Really? How quaint.
More seriously, California just recently passed a toothless law to regulate groundwater pumping while Nevada and Utah have had such laws for years.
One nice feature here: Nevada DMV allows you to schedule appointments by text. It alerts you when the appointment will be then tells you when you have 15 minutes to get there. You check in using the last four digits of your cell phone number. If you arrive late, it sends another message allowing you to check back in at the front of the line in the next 60 minutes.