[Discuss] taxachusetts and the future of tech

[richb at pioneer.ci.net (Rich Braun)]

Joseph Guarino asked:
> ... why create a new tax that
> discourages business from existing in Taxachusetts.  It should be clear
> to local and state politicians that we are not a competitive state when
> we place in the 25th in the nation vs. other states for business
> attractiveness.  Do we want to attract new firms and foster startups?
> Do we want job growth?

Writing from California, I contemplate that I voted with my feet and a one-way
airline ticket to get the heck out of Massachusetts.  However I'm not sure how
persuasive the tax argument is:  I came to CA because it's more (*vastly*
more) attractive to IT people like me these days than MA is or even once was.

The Internet was originally designed and built in Massachusetts.  Some of the
most-familiar (but now aging) open-source software was created in
Massachusetts.

But starting around the time of the 1999-2000 dot-com bust, most investors and
businesses in Massachusetts took a hard turn away from all things IT.

During a Nov. 2011 vacation trip to CA, I let a friend refer me to a couple of
his recruiters on the west coast.  That opened the floodgates; once I changed
my LinkedIn profile from the "021xx" ZIP code to "941xx", I've been getting 10
to 25 inquiries per week.  Non-stop, for years now.  Before that, I was
struggling to find anyone (with money to spend/invest/hire) interested in
hearing about my "devops" initiatives.  Things in MA are better now in 2013
than they were in 2011 but there's more to this state-by-state competition
than just taxes.

Today's open-source software is now more likely to be created on the west
coast or overseas than in MA, alas.

-rich