Maryland named worst state to retire in

High taxes, cost of living,

crime & poor health

sink state in national ranking

Just days after one of Montgomery County's top CEOs bodyslammed elected officials for failing to build the highway infrastructure needed to compete with Northern Virginia, those same County officials and Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan were treated to a piledriver from Bankrate.com. The financial advice website ranked all 50 states from best to worst as retirement destinations. Maryland was named the absolute worst state in America to retire in, finishing dead last.

Bankrate cited Maryland's high taxes, high cost of living, unaffordable health care, high crime, and poor health as the primary reasons prospective retirees should steer wide and clear of our state. The last place finish is a national humiliation for our smug, corrupt and self-promoting elected officials. While our Draconian taxes, surging crime and high cost of living are already notorious, the survey especially stung because our elected officials have routinely crowed about how healthy Montgomery County is.

Not so, says Bankrate, which used Maryland health data from Gallup, the U.S. Census Bureau, and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality to evaluate the wellness of Marylanders, and their access to health care in the state. This isn't the first report to contradict false statements by County politicians on public health. A troubling percentage of residents in eastern Montgomery County self-reported they are in poor health in a County survey that was (not-surprisingly) ignored by all media outlets except this one. And just last year, Montgomery was found to have the highest and fastest-growing rate of sexually-transmitted disease in the state.

Where should you retire? Bankrate declared Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, South Dakota, Florida, and Kentucky as top destinations for those calling it a career. In dead last, Maryland is far behind Alabama, Tennessee, Texas and other states that are already destroying it in economic development. Along with more disastrous news on that front in recent weeks, will Montgomery County's Lake Wobegon fever finally break and bring serious change to the leadership of our moribund jurisdiction?