<p>Nebraska is flat, landlocked, conservative and overwhelmingly white. By and large, terrible food. Like shopping at Walmart? In parts of Nebraska, that’s all there is. </p>
<p>If this kind of lifestyle is worth saving a few thousand dollars a year in taxes, go for it.</p>
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<p>ALL career pols are in the pocket of lobbyists. All of them.</p>
<p>I actually could see it being quite challenging for a lobbyist to develop a relationship with someone who wasn’t around for very long. Either way, the other side of the coin is Illinois, where they all have million dollar pensions and get paid anywhere from 67,000 a year on up (depending on extra for committees) AND they are in the pockets of the lobbyists.</p>
<p>In politics, oddly, I think you almost get the exact opposite of what you pay for.</p>
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<p>On the other hand, a lobbyist may be able to fool a naive new legislator more easily than s/he can fool a more experience legislator who knows how the lobbyist works, or who can more easily figure out the real reason behind what the lobbyist is lobbying for.</p>
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<p>There isn’t a lot of money in NH to play with because taxes are so low. So at least they can’t do a lot of damage. I would also prefer to see more turnover in legislatures as opposed to people building empires. The husband of our kids’ music teacher was a state legislator for two terms I think. He was on the School Board for one or two terms before that. He worked for one of the package delivery companies for a few years and then worked in security for one of the defense contractors.</p>
<p>He’s not someone that has a ton of money or particularly interested in making a ton of money - he served his country for many years and has served his town and state as well. Just your typical average person - not a big power broker.</p>
<p>“You don’t get the folks that are just in it for the perks that kowtow to the leadership to vote for stuff that they’ll repay you with jobs for your relatives and committee heads.”</p>
<p>Or you just get people who are wealthy running for office.</p>
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<p>Seems to me that folks that are wealthy would have other things to do with their time unless it was true public service. Being a legislator means a lot of driving, meeting with constituents, campaigning and it puts you in the public eye. It’s not like you’re going to get a lot of power for yourself as part of a very large legislative body in a very small state.</p>
<p>The people that I know that have held office or run for office are ordinary people.</p>
<p>I’ve called up legislators many times over education issues and they seem like ordinary people to me.</p>
<p>^ If you look at the net worth of the House and Senate members that would not be what you would find. </p>
<p>It is also very expensive to run for office - even at the state level. </p>
<p>Also, a very disproportionate number of legislators at both the state and federal levels are attorneys (43% in Congress) and while not necessarily mega rich, most are definitely likely top 2%ers.</p>
<p>As a kid, my favorite times were spent visiting Nebraska relatives, and I still get back there every few years, so need to defend the place a bit. </p>
<p>Eastern Nebraska is full of rather dramatically rolling green hills, including those western suburbs of Omaha. I find it beautiful, and my friend who spent her honeymoon (really)biking from WI to Glacier NP states that Nebraska and the sand hills were her favorite part of the trip. </p>
<p>ACT and SAT scores are in the very respectable range of much of the upper Midwest. </p>
<p>Visiting my cousin who now lives part time in the Omaha suburbs as an escape from life on their farm, I’ve been impressed with those suburbs. Very reasonable prices, plenty of parks, recreation, bike paths, and the hills add a sense of drama. </p>
<p>The northern part of the state has seen a large influx of hispanic workers in recent years, and many all white towns are increasingly multicultural. The food is improving as a result! </p>
<p>Lincoln, as an appointed resettlement city for refugees, has become increasingly multicultural, as described in the Mary Pipher book. [The</a> Middle of Everywhere: Helping Refugees Enter the American Community: Mary Pipher: 9780156027373: Amazon.com: Books](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/The-Middle-Everywhere-Refugees-Community/dp/0156027372]The”>http://www.amazon.com/The-Middle-Everywhere-Refugees-Community/dp/0156027372)</p>
<p>And in the end, the Nebraskans I know are readers, thinkers, possessed of good humor, education, and a great deal of kindness. For some of us, those qualities become more important with time. Not quite ready to move there myself, but there is much to like about the state.</p>
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<p>How do you find the net worth of state House and Senate members? Some of the campaigns at the state level run on a few thousand dollars. One of our local House candidates was a homeschooling mom - no income. She spends a lot of time helping out other homeschooling families.</p>
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<p>The NH House is the largest in the country. It’s also a small state. So there are a lot of representatives around the state so each individual representative doesn’t have to reach that many residents. This means that campaigns are local and that candidates generally don’t spend money on media. Campaign signs, yes. TV and Radio? No.</p>
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<p>I just looked up a random NH House member work record:</p>
<p>President, Jo Greens Garden Cafe, Incorporated, 1994-present
Accountant, John P. Latchaw, MD, 1990-1994
Restaurant Manager</p>
<p>Here’s another random member:</p>
<p>Police Officer, retired
Private Investigator</p>
<p>And another:</p>
<p>Real Estate, present
Timber Sales, present</p>
<p>And another:</p>
<p>Consultant/Professor, Early Childhood Education, New Hampshire Technical Institute, 1998-2005
Professor/Department Chair, Early Childhood, New Hampshire Technical Institute, 1990-1998
Vice President, Education and Development, Academy of Applied Science, 1985-1990
Consultant, Title 1 Elementary and Secondary Education Act, New Hampshire State Department of Education, 1969-1985
Teacher, Salem, New Hampshire/Whitefield, New Hampshire/Montreal, Quebec, 1957-1969</p>
<p>Absolutely what I expected: ordinary people.</p>
<p>I should do some data analysis on the makeup of the Legislatures around the country. I found a political website that has the information but not in a tabular form - you enter the name and it gives you the data. It would be interesting to see what the typical makeup of legislatures are around the country.</p>
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<p>Exactly. </p>
<p>The more you put in the cookie jar, the more people try to raid it. Keep government limited and focused and the opportunists move onto greener pastures like aluminum siding and and tv lawyer. </p>
<p>Keep people moving in and out every couple of terms- this doesnt need to be anyone’s career goal. And if it is, thats probably a sign of a pathology. It would be much better that they established they can accomplish something in business before they start bending the electorate to their will.</p>
<p>^ BC, so you believe that someone like a minimum wage worker at Walmart or your garbageman, or waitress at the local coffee shop can afford to run for then be a legislator? You think they can afford to take the time off from their job without pay to do this? </p>
<p>You believe, as you said so yourself, that someone like the aforementioned Walmart cashier or garbageman, waitress, can afford to take time off from their regular job to do, “a lot of driving, meeting with constituents, campaigning,” with little to no compensation and loss of wages from their hourly job? Okey dokey.</p>
<p>“One of our local House candidates was a homeschooling mom - no income.”</p>
<p>How did she pay her mortgage? Buy food for her children? Heat her home? Pay for a car? Could it be that her husband has a nice income so she could afford to home school her kids and run for office?</p>
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<p>overwhelmingly white? …and conservative to boot?..oh the horror</p>
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<p>They could afford to run. To be a legislator, though, would require the ability to get to Concord and work during the day. My package delivery friend worked the overnight and weekend shifts so that he could serve during the day. I don’t think that he made all that much at his job. I would guess that his wife made quite a bit more teaching music.</p>
<p>I heard about one person that ran for office on a $200 budget. I don’t know whether or not he was successful.</p>
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<p>If someone can structure their lives to serve, then more power to them. I don’t care to discriminate based on economic class.</p>
<p>^ I don’t want to discriminate on the basis of economic class either, which is why I think public servants should get paid a good salary, not $200 a year - which disqualifies the majority of the people.</p>
<p>This is only for Florida but…</p>
<p>“Come campaign time, politicians love to portray themselves as men and women of the people. But most go home to lives that are different from those of the voters they represent. In many cases, far different.”</p>
<p>[S</a>. Florida elected officials richer than those they represent - Sun Sentinel](<a href=“http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2011-12-27/news/fl-politician-financial-disclosures-20111227_1_financial-disclosure-slosberg-public-officials]S”>http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2011-12-27/news/fl-politician-financial-disclosures-20111227_1_financial-disclosure-slosberg-public-officials)</p>
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<p>Many of our House members are older people and they may have saved up some assets from when they were younger. I do not know that the majority of people can’t serve at some point in their lives. We’ve had some pretty interesting House members over the years.</p>
<p>I have a list of NH House Members in a spreadsheet. I’m going to fill it in with their work histories. I’d guess that most are ordinary people.</p>
<p>So anti-Nebraska! </p>
<p>And yet . . . </p>
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<p>Yes it is. And at night, there are stars and black sky, not light pollution.</p>
<p>Not bothering to read this thread, but the MA tax burden consists in large part of property taxes. Houses are worth a lot. Prop 2&1/2 - which may have been the first taxpayer initiative to limit property tax increases - limits the amount by which they can go up. But they do go up because property is worth so much. </p>
<p>To figure tax burden fairly, you’d need to adjust and that isn’t as easy as it sounds. If you adjust by property value, MA looks much better. If you adjust by personal income, where MA is at the top, then MA also looks much better. But there are many ways one can adjust figures to make them look as one wants.</p>
<p>eastcoastcrazy, re post #30, it sounds like you haven’t lived there for twenty years either. </p>
<p>Look, I freely admitted that I was there on business and that it was a long time ago. I don’t need you to chide me. Nothing you said addressed the aspect of Omaha that I talked about: the lack of what one might call “city life,” despite its size. The fact that sprawl has overtaken cornfields is not a plus to me.</p>
<p>I’m sure that it has the virtues you describe. Oh, and I live in an almost rural area. Not everything on the east coast is a suburb or a city.</p>
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<p>It’s axiomatic on CC, however, that rural is charming and pastoral when it’s in New England, and hick when it’s in the midwest, plains states or south, LOL.</p>