Tag: Sacramento

Tagg, 69, sold his San Jose home and moved his family to Arizona in 2014. “I’m a good old Republican,” Tagg said. “I just saw the writing on the wall.” The Bay Area has become one of the most popular places in the country to leave in recent years. One-party domination in Sacramento and constant chafing with neighbors has driven conservative Bay Area refugees to communities in Texas, Idaho, Colorado and Florida. Former residents say their views on immigration and taxes put them on the margins of a region they once embraced. San Jose State political scientist Larry Gerston said the region’s rising taxes have pinched many high-income residents, while low-income residents are burdened by the high cost of living. DeStefano, 72, and his wife bought a home and moved into a gated retirement community in Fort Meyers, Florida, in late 2017. “California will become the next Venezuela in five years,” DeStefano said. Politics was “99 percent” of the reason for a move, he said. But the Bay Area, he said, “is really not worth it.”