Moving to Vermont

I was searching for a local pizzeria's menu last night - of course there wasn't one online but that's a whole other story - and came across another woman's blog. She and her husband had just moved to Vermont from California and she was now realizing that Vermont is not a user-friendly state. I became hooked on her blog and proceded to read the entire thing.

She'd moved her with the "promise" of a job at a local credit union. Only she arrived to learn the job wasn't all she'd pictured and salaries were miniscule compared to salaries in CA. So by the time I'd finished reading, she was ready and talking about moving back to CA.

I find this amusing because salaries here are not great. Housing costs and taxes keep increasing, while salaries stay the same. We bought our house a little over ten years ago. Since that time, the value of our house has doubled. Our property and school taxes have tripled and my husband's hourly wage has increased by a little over $4--so that's about 30 cents a year. With skyrocketing heating fuel costs, lack of public transportation so you have to car pool or drive your car to work, I've often wondered how Vermonter's can afford to stay in Vermont. I'd love to pack up and move, and I know the day will come when we will. For now my family is here, my husband's job seems secure enough and he's put in 27 years now, so as he said he'd be foolish to start over. But something within the government has to change. Big business is shot down repeatedly by environmental agencies who want Vermont to remain small and wooded... but without jobs there will be no people to support the state so something has to give.