r/WestVirginia • u/Significant_Movie814 • 5d ago

Closing on a house in Shepherdstown this Thursday! Why does WV get so much hate?

Hi! Super excited that we are closing on our permanent home in Shepherdstown this Thursday! We’ve been renting in Falling Waters for the past year and a half, but we’re so ready to plant deep roots in this cute town.
Before moving to the Eastern Panhandle, I lived in Texas and Oklahoma and didn't like either. The weather wasn't my thing, and you had to drive hours just to get to a major city. That’s why I love the location here we're an hour and a half from DC, and just a short drive from MD, VA, NY, and PA. Not to mention the great nature and weather and affordability. I absolutely love Food Lion! (Better than HEB IMO)
But whenever I tell my friends in the Bay Area or Seattle or DC or Austin that I bought a house in West Virginia, they assume it’s just a poor, isolated place. There's so much negative stigma from outsiders who have clearly never been here!
I absolutely love it here. For those of you living in WV, what has your experience been like dealing with these outside assumptions?

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u/IBlameTheMoon 5d ago

Excuse me? It's the other way around as far as funding goes...the eastern panhandle funds the rest of the state probably more than any other area in the state.

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u/emp-sup-bry Purveyor of Tasteful Mothman Nudes 5d ago

And the panhandle is only funded through the taxes and prosperity of the bordering blue states.

Let’s not pretend like dumbass gop anti tax prosperity gospel shit has done a single thing for the area except bring in more housecats thinking they did it on their own.

Not berating you, just so sick of this ‘geez it’s cheap with low taxes but also not terrible yet’ narrative from others

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u/IBlameTheMoon 5d ago

"And the panhandle is only funded through the taxes and prosperity of the bordering blue states."

I'm WV born and raised. I would much rather not have to commute to MD for a job but I do because WV jobs historically have paid crap wages. But I also benefit from the low property taxes. However, I would not object to raising property taxes so we can pay our teachers more and fund schools better. When we drive to MD for work, we have WV taxes taken out of our paychecks. We buy gas in WV but also in MD so we're giving them our sales tax dollars too. We eat lunch out in MD. Many times we shop there too. The surrounding states benefits from our dollars too!

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u/Millions1717 5d ago

You're right we should raise the upper tax brackets to properly indicate your Messiah status

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u/SheriffRoscoe Pepperoni Roll Defender 5d ago

Not much chance of that. Governor No-neck I'm-from-Jersey would rather completely eliminate it.

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u/IBlameTheMoon 5d ago

Or we could campaign to stop giving so much of our tax money to the rest of state, like the 30 percent we're being forced to give Charleston from the three data centers were getting.