High school sports writer | Manhattan (KS) Mercury

Kansas -- 8th in cost of living, 12th in housing affordability, according to US News & Whatnot. It is slightly above average in terms of taxes, coming in 13th in effective tax rate.

 

I'm wondering how those rankings are skewed by Johnson County alone.

 

Maybe this is a joke about Manhattan (New York) that didn't land?

 

If Johnson County didn't exist, I think Kansas would be a lot lower. If Southeast Kansas didn't exist, Kansas would be a lot higher.

I worked in Southeast Kansas and the majority of the state's poorest counties were down there.

 

I've written a book in which Johnson County is a factor in the second chapter. In the 1970s, it was one of the most affluent counties in the United States. My best guess is … it still is.

 

Good luck living in Manhattan on that salary. You’ll probably have to commute from Newark

 

Where were you when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?

 

"Good luck living in Manhattan on that salary. You’ll probably have to commute from (Junction City)."

(You probably don't want to live in Junction City.)

 

I think they're still identifying diseases you can catch in JC.

 

Wamego = Brooklyn

Ogden = Staten Island

 

What are taxes like for a person making 30K a year? I thought Kansas had a pretty regressive tax structure.

 

I am not a tax expert and should never be confused as such. From what I've found, the consensus seems to be that state income tax would be $900 to $1,000 for a single filer, with local, federal, and FICA on top of that. Then there's sales (which is higher than average, 8.95 percent city + county for Manhattan), fuel, and property taxes, though buying property at that salary and in this business seems like a bad idea to say the least.