[speaker002:] well I always think I'm paying too much taxes how about you
[speaker001:] yeah oh definitely seems like
[speaker002:] although at least Texas doesn't have a state income tax yet I mean you know they keep threatening us that maybe there'll be a day that they're going to uh enact this I think uh the um other means of providing income for the state have been dwindling so they keep trying to say we may need a uh state income tax
[speaker001:] yeah I think that uh we probably will have to have to uh have a state income tax because uh Texans don't approve of such things as lotteries uh uh well I I come I come here from New York and New York had a state lottery and it really raised a lot of money for the for the state
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] uh although we in New York we had to pay a state and a city uh tax and it was really a great relief when I got to Texas that I didn't have to pay that city income tax though
[speaker002:] yeah makes quite a bit of difference in your uh well your income level you know because other states take chunk quite a bit a chunk out for uh city and state taxes so you're uh looking at your yearly salary it makes quite a difference
[speaker001:] right it sure does make make a difference
[speaker002:] a little more take home here
[speaker001:] uh-huh do you live in Dallas
[speaker002:] yeah Richardson area
[speaker001:] oh you do oh
[speaker002:] yeah I work at uh well mainly the Expressway Site is where I work
[speaker001:] oh I do too
[speaker002:] oh okay
[speaker001:] okay and then you know too that uh taxes are are less like if you live in Mesquite
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] you know some people will go shopping in Mesquite at the malls out there uh
[speaker002:] or up to Collin County somewhere that you're getting out of the um Dallas County area because what do we pay like eight and a half percent something like that for the uh sales tax
[speaker001:] uh-huh eight point five um-hum
[speaker002:] which yeah that really is pretty high
[speaker001:] is it the same is it uh less in Collin County than it is in Dallas County
[speaker002:] I think so although I really I don't go up there too much I mean I I normally just kind of go to Richardson Square Mall or Valley View Mall just kind of for the convenience uh
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] I guess maybe if I was going to buy a car or something maybe I would consider where I was buying it to try to you know save a little bit on that sales tax because on a car that really matters kind of mounts up
[speaker001:] um-hum um-hum yeah it sure did and then once you could deduct at least some of that um off off your income tax and you can't do that anymore
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] it really hit me yesterday I had uh air conditioning service for my car done and I had a little little uh coupon special that was twenty two dollars for um air conditioning service where they
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] uh checked it and charged recharged it and put one one pound of freon in and if you needed another pound of freon they gave it it was like seven dollars and something and then with the with the twenty two dollars and the seven something it all came out to I I ended up paying like thirty four dollars and I couldn't believe it and it the tax you know really hits you
[speaker002:] yeah yeah that's true although I wish I wish you know overall they'd try the lottery again when did you first come to Texas
[speaker001:] um-hum and then oh it's been I've been here for nine years
[speaker002:] okay well that's about the same time as me I came down in eighty two
[speaker001:] really where'd you come from
[speaker002:] um well Ohio kind of my parents live in Ohio I had lived a little while in Michigan but you know basically I went to high school and college in Ohio and lived there uh more years than I ever did in Michigan
[speaker001:] oh uh-huh um-hum um-hum well uh I did visit uh Michigan I visited Kalamazoo once my sister used to live there
[speaker002:] oh okay but you know when we first came down here I really thought this place was somewhat backward I mean I was just shocked that we couldn't shop on Sunday
[speaker001:] uh-huh that's true I tell you what hit me the first year I was here uh Christmas eve in New York there used to be stores open the department stores wouldn't close uh
[speaker002:] remember that
[speaker001:] well I'd say they closed maybe eight or nine o'clock the department stores on Christmas eve but uh there were stores that you could go to uh you know like discount stores and
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] and stores down in the village and just all over the place where you could go to and you could shop till like twelve or one o'clock that night and that was like that was really the only night they were open that late but it was Christmas eve and when I came to Dallas
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] I thought I was going to do that Christmas eve and I couldn't find hardly anything open after five o'clock in the afternoon and I was oh I was I really I really was stuck
[speaker002:] were you shocked like oh no I'm stuck I need to buy stuff
[speaker001:] and I think Target was the one that stayed open later than anybody anybody else and uh I was able to pick up a few things in there but boy I was I was really shocked and then another shock I had well when I went to uh to buy a slice of pizza and found out that I had to buy the whole pie
[speaker002:] uh-huh oh few places now seem to do it by the slice but
[speaker001:] yeah now but they but back then they didn't when I first came no
[speaker002:] right
[speaker001:] anyway
[speaker002:] well the the uh there was other things too I mean I think it's taken us Yankee's influence down here to get them to uh come to the the the you know the correct decade here and century um
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] I couldn't believe that you could have open containers of beer or alcohol whatever in the car
[speaker001:] right right
[speaker002:] I mean you could always um uh be careful about that back then because uh you know if you if a cop stopped you then you would um you know get arrested or whatnot and people would just drink openly
[speaker001:] uh-huh uh-huh it yeah and talk a talking about alcohol and beer look at the taxes on that and the taxes on a package of of cigarettes I used to smoke you know and uh
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] that would have been enough to to make me me give them up the price of them now but I gave them up couple a couple years ago because I had some sinus problems
[speaker002:] oh well I don't smoke so I don't really know what the taxes are and stuff on it
[speaker001:] well well they're like two or I I believe they're hitting two dollars a pack now
[speaker002:] um
[speaker001:] maybe a little bit a little bit a little bit more in some places
[speaker002:] so you end up about paying about twelve dollars for a pack and two dollars of that is taxes
[speaker001:] uh well I believe it's a little more than twelve dollars for a carton I think it's maybe thirteen or something
[speaker002:] huh gee
[speaker001:] uh because I remember we went to to Oklahoma to this this bingo place this Choctaw bingo uh a couple weeks ago and somebody that went with me bought a carton for uh uh ten dollars and something and they really thought they were getting a big discount
[speaker002:] they're cheaper there
[speaker001:] well because it's you know the Indians I don't think they pay tax
[speaker002:] oh
[speaker001:] in in Oklahoma
[speaker002:] oh I got you okay
[speaker001:] and uh it was a Indian it well it's a bingo hall for the benefit of the Indians there although I didn't see very many Indian people in there there were just bus loads of people that come from everywhere else to play that bingo because it's it's
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] the stakes are higher and payoffs are bigger and so forth I won a dollar yeah I had fun uh couple people on the bus won some money one one guy won two
[speaker002:] well how'd you do a dollar oh well but you had fun playing right