I pay less here now in NC than I did in rural NYS 20 years ago. I sold the house in NY for $100k and bought this one here for $240k. In NY we hauled our own trash to the transfer station and paid $2/ bag, here we have curb pickup of 96 gallon roll carts for trash and recycling. In NY I had no local police, no public water or sewer, here we have a dedicated sheriff's staff for our town, plus county water and sewer. In NY our town high school was rated statewide as well below average, here we can choose between any of the 8 county high schools and ours is in the top 2% of the state. We also have a dedicated central high school for specialty Advanced Placement courses such as computer networking and calculus II. This same school also has technical curriculum for automotive, building, and other trades.
States are like products or vendors. Choose the one that best fits your needs.