Here’s an interesting article about the states without personal income tax, states that don’t tax pensions, and other factors. However, the last few paragraphs about alternative ways the states raise money is interesting:
https://www.thebalance.com/states-without-an-income-tax-3193345
A lot depends on the type of place you want to live. I used to live in New Mexico, and Colorado, and moving back east with high humidity was something I had to factor in when I made a career decision. Another thing to consider is it may be cheaper to live in certain areas for taxes, but utility, and property taxes can really hurt your pocketbook.
The way I evaluate a new place is to go to realtor . com, sign up for an account, put in a search strategy, and see if you can afford to live there, or even want to after seeing the living costs. Then I go to Google, and search:
city-data forum city name, state name. Look at the moving to, relocating, best areas, and sometimes you find a thread on why people moved away. You can see what actual residents think about an area, what the crime situation is, and a lot of other factors.
For example, someone I know was considering a job in Huntsville, AL. I found a thread on city-data about weather risks, and best areas of town, and found a great map with highlighted areas that had repeated issues with weather, since often the weather follows the terrain.
If you narrow your list down to two or three cities, you can post on here and ask what the horse scene is like.
