Monday, March 2, 2009

A Place To Retire...

Sioux Falls was recently rated one of the United States’ top places to retire, according to KELO. Thanks to our non-existent state income tax (and low taxes in general), retired folk have found Sioux Falls and greater South Dakota a great place to retire when drawing upon retirement income.

The U.S. News & World article cited several other cities, all with similar low-tax burdens on the retired community. Of particular concern to us, though, is that this influx of older, retired persons combined with the outflow of younger, working individuals creates a vast need for retirement homes, with a shrinking productive tax base to help support such projects. We need to keep our youth here in order to minimize the age gap, enabling us to care for our senior citizens who find South Dakota a perfect place to retire.

We need a proactive strategy to show younger individuals all that South Dakota has to offer…it seems that our youth realize the benefits of our state in their later years, when they eventually return here, creating the void between the numbers of younger and older generations in our state.

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