From AP via the Billings Gazette, Wyoming county is tops for wealth. Read to the bottom to see the real attaction.
For the fourth time in six years, Teton County – home of scenic Jackson Hole and gateway to Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks – is the wealthiest in America.
Teton’s average adjusted household gross income in 2002, the latest year for which data is available, was $107,694, or 2 percent higher than runner-up Fairfield County, Conn., according to the Internal Revenue Service.
Other high-income counties were Marin, Calif., Somerset, N.J., and Morris, N.J. In Colorado, Clear Creek and Douglas counties ranked sixth and seventh, respectively.
Rounding out the top ten were Hunterdon, N.J.; Westchester, N.Y.; and New York, N.Y.
Since 1997, Teton County’s per-return income has ranked either first or second among the nation’s 3,140 counties. The county also was tops in per-capita income in 2002, the IRS said.
Many wealthy people move to Jackson for its myriad outdoor activities and culture, real estate broker Bob Graham said.
“Aside from the normal attractions – parks et cetera – you can go through the long list of deep powder, good golf, world-class fly-fishing, the museum, the symphony,” he said.
The list is not paramount, though.
“It’s second only to the enormous tax advantage the state of Wyoming offers,” Graham said.
Wyoming has no personal or corporate income tax and relatively low property taxes thanks to revenue from a robust minerals industry.