Was in Louisville this week visiting my brother. When my youngest leaves for college in 4 years I will be leaving cali.

Its just too crowded for me. And cost of homes and taxation are stupid. Plus my kids private school is a fortune.

There was a study recently ranking states based on how well they used tax revenue. I believe Colorado was 5th best while California was like 47th or 48th. This is a stat that really shows up in real life. My basic business tax for my S Corp is $10 per year in Colorado. It is a minimum of $800 in California. My GT3 sales tax was $7k in Colorado while it would have been $16k in California. Income tax is 13.3% in California vs 4.65% in Colorado. The list goes on and on.

For all of that extra money i expect something in return. Now, if the state had amazing roads, like Germany does, or provides a lot of value added services, maybe i could see it. Because for that amount of taxation, you SHOULD be able to see it. So why are the roads so bad and neglected in California? Why is the infrastructure in such bad shape? And how does a place like Colorado, that snows, have better roads with far less revenue?

I guess you can say it is a sunshine tax, but the folks running California never invested a penny to provide that sunshine. Where is all the money going?

Mass is no better. Excise tax on all vehicles. This year cost me over $7K....and all part of SALT so no more deduction

You will absolutely love KY. Believe it out not there are other places better than CA. I left for the same reasons you are at the same time, my youngest graduating HS.

If you were unemployed, poor, homeless you would. It mostly goes to fund the folks that are really good at working the system.

Seattle is higher$1450? puh-lease, my bill for registering a 2016 Cayman GT4 in Seattle, 2017 was higher than that.

Get this; they tricked the voters into using a falsely high depreciation schedule to calculate car taxes not based in reality where a 3 yr old car is taxed at value of 95% of MSRP. So it is not just a high taxation rate, the assessed value is artificially high also.

They are not registration fees they are a road tax, plain and simple.

That is the truth.

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I know more folks living off the government dime (mostly extended family) in CA than anywhere else. Only in CA can you work 10 years, claim your knees hurt (from an office job, really!). And draw enough disability indefinitely (two adults!) to keep up a home and 2 cars in on the border of San Jose/Los Gatos. The fact that folks who make these "life choices" are supported by the state for the rest of their lives drives more and more people to make those choices. I have watched it happen...once one set of folks learns how to work the system, they teach the rest of the family and then pretty soon no one is working - and society doesn't get the benefit of their contribution.

And on the flip side, when someone wants to start a business (which several folks in the family have also done) - the state makes them feel like criminals with annual guaranteed payroll tax audits (with unnecessarily aggressive individuals), workers comp audits, regular visits from fire marshals, ADA compliance officers (for a ground floor retail business with no steps anywhere!) and county inventory tax officers. All this for a business that maybe (maybe) grosses $40K/yr in turnover in Watsonville. Move that business to small-town Texas, and you don't see any of that.

The taxes in CA are nuts, but the fact that its socially acceptable to be a loafer is the one thing that really drives me crazy. Why should I have to pay because you don't want to work? But that is the way it is.

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The average Californian thinks that if you have enough money to afford cars like these, you don't have the right to complain about high taxes or fees. Hell, the average American thinks that. It's human nature. If you have more resources than someone else, you are the enemy. Can I afford to pay $1500 fees every year to keep driving the car I already "own"? Yes. Doesn't mean I like doing it or think it's moral or ethical.

Isn't there a thread "California lifestyle" with around 40 pages, that clearly states that California is wonderful? This thread seems to suggest otherwise.

Anyone beat this

Here is another perspective. For those states with low registration fee, how many days out of the year can you drive your car? In CA, it’s 365 days a year. So you should do a divide on that and see what is your cost per day?

Well in CO it isn't 365 days. And to the poster above I can match and slightly beat that. Yay

What in the world does CA spend all of the tax revenue on - you folks must have the cleanest cities, best public schools, and nicest roads in the world?

Here in Austin, GT3 registration is $76 and I can drive pretty much 365 days a year.

Let’s define “driving” your car. If by “driving” you mean sunny days, well maintained roads and minimal traffic, in California that number is basically zero. In Colorado that number is well over 100. Personally, I don’t consider sitting in traffic and/or dodging potholes to be “driving.“

Consider this. Went out driving with a couple of friends. Sunny, 45 to 55 degrees, well maintained, awesome twisty road. Think 30 miles of some of the best roads and scenery short of the Swiss Alps. And....NO TRAFFIC. Not ONE CAR the entire way there. And no cops.

I did another drive two weeks ago. This one was 40 miles. Saw two cars the whole way there. Both pulled over to let me pass. This road is nothing like anything you are going to see just about anywhere in this country. Bucket list scenery. High speed turns. Straight sections for triple digit runs. Serious elevation changes. Technical sections. Streams. Everything you could ever want from a driving perspective is on that 40 mile road. Very well maintained.

These drives are impossible in California. And they are 20 minutes from my house. There are 3 more shockers maybe 30 minutes from my house, but they have some traffic usually. An hour away is Pikes Peak. In all, maybe 15 solid routes close.

Also, remember that you don’t need great weather to get out and drive. The Jeep is for the other days.