Archive: Opinions

With Memorial Day coming up consumer Web site WalletHub.com decided to make a list of this year's best and worst states for military retirees.  The site listed the 50 states and the District of Columbia, then analyzed the economic environment, quality of life and health care rank for each.  With Wyoming ranking the best, New York State ranked 50 out of 51.  Only California ranked worse than New York.

Wallet Hub identified 19 weighted metrics in order to quantify the differences between the states.  To test the economic environment they collected data on state taxes on military pensions and on veterans' income, the number of veteran-owned businesses per 1,000 inhabitants, the volume of Defense Department contracts, job opportunities for veterans, the number of major military bases per 10,000 veterans, the cost of housing and the cost of living index.  Not surprisingly this category is where New York is worst.  It ranked 50 out of 51.

The State didn't do much better in the Quality of Life Category.  Here the site measured the number of veterans per 100 inhabitants, the number of VA facilities per number of veterans, the university system rank, arts and leisure establishments per 100,000 inhabitants, the percentage of people over 40 (Wallet Hub says that the average officer retires at 45.2 years old), the number of homeless veterans per number of veterans and weather.  New York ranked 47 out of 51.




New York didn't do badly in the Health Care category, however.  Wallet Hub measured the number of VA health facilities per number of veterans, the number of hospitals per 100,000 inhabitants, the number of physicians per 1,000 inhabitants and emotional health.  New York ranked 17.

The data was culled from the U.S. Census Bureau, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Tax Foundation, the U.S. Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy, Transparency.gov, Indeed.com, the Department of Veterans Affairs, U.S. News & World Report, Gallup Healthways, the Department of Defense, Missouri Economic Research & Information Center and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

I found it disheartening that the states with the three largest cities in the nation were all among the bottom five.  From fifth worst to worst they are Illinois, Arizona, Indiana, New York and California.  I have a close friend who is in need of his VA benefits, and he seems pretty happy with them.  So it is hard to know whether these rankings truly reflect the admittedly subjective way local veterans feel about where they live.  However, if you noted my rant two weeks ago, New York is ranked as the #9th highest taxed state. 

The top five states for veterans: From first to fifth they are Wyoming, New Hampshire, Montana, South Dakota, and Nebraska.  Alaska is the sixth best.  These states are pretty cold, but there must be some kind of a warm glow there, at least for veterans.

v10i19