Long time lurker.
One thing I notice a lot in these discussions is a lack of discussion on a state's fiscal health. I'm not talking just about tax rates (although they're related) but the health of the state's finances.
One example is that Chicago and Illinois are very often recommended here (New Jersey and Connecticut are other examples states-wise). However, their fiscal health is the worst in the nation, primarily due to pension funding issues. This has led to a ton of new taxes and the state's social services often risking austerity (almost happened to the CTA before the last minute last year). This also means the state's social services will not have much room to be expanded due to a lack of room for new taxes or revenue generation that can go elsewhere besides pensions. Heck, the new pensions post-2011 are worse than Social Security, which is a violation of federal law.
Meanwhile, states like Minnesota, New York, Georgia, and Wisconsin are much better funded in terms of pensions and their general state budgets, giving them much more room to expand social services and infrastructure and not have a risk of heavily increased taxes, imposed austerity, or worse benefits for state workers and residents.
Is this something people think about a lot when choosing their move or am I overthinking it? Or are other things like weather / climate change resilience, job opportunities, nature access, and social scene seen as more important?