Fleeing Illinois

[ChanceMcCall]

Like many of our friends we are going to flee Illinois. Tennessee is high on our list as soon as Tennessee changes its income tax rules on investment and passive income which we understand is suppose to happen. We are seriously looking for land in Eastern Tennessee on which to build a home, but we may temporarily become South Dakota while waiting for the income tax laws to change.

My wife and I are lifelong residents of Illinois with her grandfather coming from Sweden as a small boy and my family moving to Illinois in the 1820s in time to fight Indians. We will be leaving with  reluctance and sadness, but Illinois has gone bright blue and there is the looming specter of bankruptcy. My wife taught school for 33 years and I have owned my own business since graduating from college and leaving federal law enforcement years ago.

My wife and I both shoot trap regularly and she has a Illinois concealed carry permit. I carry under LEOSA. I used to hunt extensively including in Tennessee, but now mostly quail and pheasant and not regularly. I was a law enforcement firearms instructor many years ago, specializing in training deep cover agents which should be very different training than uniformed and plain clothes officers and agents receive.

Some of my regularly used guns:

Winchester 101 for trap

Browning Citori for bird hunting

Marlin 39D for small game hunting

Ruger MK4 for small game handgun hunting (finally a gun that is easy to put back together) and plinking

Ruger .44 magnum carbine for game

Ruger .44 magnum Super Blackhawk Hunter cut back to a 5" barrel and other gunsmith work for handgun hunting

Remington 1100 for Illinois deer and with quick modification for a house gun

Springfield Armory XDs in .45ACP for daily carry

there are others, but this gives you an idea of who I am...

My wife has two guns of her own and uses some of mine for some things

Syren shotgun for trap shooting

Boberg 9mm for daily carry

Life Member:

NRA

2nd Amendment Foundation

Illinois State Rife Association

Guns Save Lives

SASS

CMSA (founding member)

We are coming here to learn more about the shooting community in Tennessee.

[QuackerSmacker]

Hi Chance, get on down here to Tennessee.  We got here a few weeks ago from Streamwood ILLannoy, and absolutely love it.  We live about 4 miles outside of Maryville.

The TN tax on investment income will be 2% for tax year 2019, 1% for tax year 2020, and then gone.   Would expense and hassle of moving to SD and then TN be worth it to avoid those low rates?

You'll quickly see that the members on this forum are a MUCH happier group than our poor old buddies on the IC forum. 

Let us know how your plans progress.  Happy to answer any questions you may have about the IL to TN transition. Every single surprise we've had has been a good one.

Just sent my IL CCL and FOID card back to the IL State Police today.  Sayonara!  So glad to be out of the nuthouse they call Illinois (and Chicago.)

Q

 

 

[gregintenn]

Welcome to TGO.

[Colt Capperrune]

From Peoria IL myself. Enjoying TN a lot! 

[Grand Torino]

Welcome aboard!

[TripleGGG]

Welcome to TGO! 

[DaveTN]

Welcome. I do most of my shooting anymore in Illiopolis.

[DWARREN123]

Howdy and Welcome to TGO!!!

[ChanceMcCall]

Still trying to figure out the real estate. We are looking to be right outside of a city of 50-100,000 people and having trouble finding such a place. Memphis is out - Nashville is also out - Knoxville is out - all are larger than we want. Any suggestions?

[Garufa]

4 minutes ago, ChanceMcCall said:

Still trying to figure out the real estate. We are looking to be right outside of a city of 50-100,000 people and having trouble finding such a place. Memphis is out - Nashville is also out - Knoxville is out - all are larger than we want. Any suggestions?

Jackson. 

[Ronald_55]

TriCities are nice, Johnson City is 66k, Kingsport is 53k, Bristol Tn/Va is 42k. All are within about a 40 minute radius. Plus Asheville, NC is not far. Less than an hour from Johnson City. We are about 2 hours NE from Knoxville. 

Give you lots of options to live and work within a decent commute. Only realky gets crazy 2 weekend a year for NASCAR. Better than Pigeon Forge close to where I grew up Which is crazy 365 now.

[TNBuckeye]

My wife and I have grown to enjoy Cookeville and the surrounding area so I might suggest checking the area out as well. 

You will enjoy TN regardless of the area as long as you avoid the larger cities. A dramatic improvement over IL.

Edited February 5, 2019 by TNBuckeye

[ReeferMac]

On 2/4/2019 at 7:34 PM, Ronald_55 said:

TriCities are nice, Johnson City is 66k, Kingsport is 53k, Bristol Tn/Va is 42k. All are within about a 40 minute radius. Plus Asheville, NC is not far. Less than an hour from Johnson City. We are about 2 hours NE from Knoxville. 

 

Ditto. The whole Tricities area is beautiful, though I'm partial to Johnson City, and that back road that goes to Greeneville!

 

- K
 

[DaveTN]

On 2/4/2019 at 5:18 PM, ChanceMcCall said:

Still trying to figure out the real estate. We are looking to be right outside of a city of 50-100,000 people and having trouble finding such a place. Memphis is out - Nashville is also out - Knoxville is out - all are larger than we want. Any suggestions?

Murfreesboro is 136K. It has most everything you need, but you are about 30 minutes from Nashville if you need to go to a large city. The drawback is the traffic control hasn’t kept up with the growth of the city and is years behind.

Shelbyville is 21K its horse county, so they have all ranges of property from low cost to multi-million dollar estates. 20 minutes to Murfreesboro and less than an hour to Nashville.

[QuackerSmacker]

Check out Maryville.  It's south of Knoxville.  Best place we've ever lived.  Even better than ILLannoy!

[martin5]

I think you might like crossville or cookeville.

[Ramjo]

On 2/4/2019 at 6:18 PM, ChanceMcCall said:

Still trying to figure out the real estate. We are looking to be right outside of a city of 50-100,000 people and having trouble finding such a place. Memphis is out - Nashville is also out - Knoxville is out - all are larger than we want. Any suggestions?

Johnson City 

[ReeferMac]

Yeah, give the Tricities area a look (Bristol, Johnson City, Kingsport). Not only is it a gorgeous area of the State, but sounds about the right size. It is a LOT bigger than it looked on the map. Once I went through there (for work), I couldn't believe all that was there. Yet, it's not a 'big city'. Plenty of job opportunities between Eastman Chemical and ETSU, etc.,

 

- K
 

[Dirtshooter]

If you moved from Smellanoy it doesn't matter much does it?? Just avoid the large cities, depending on what you are looking for, get on Land and Farm or Landwatch and plug in what you are looking for, raw land, horse ranch or whatever. But I will tell you, you will forget all about Smellanoy very quickly!! PM me for more info. Mac