If I were starting over again... Texas.

The Red State in Your Future — Forbes:

Voters around the country are concluding it's better to be red than dead—applying a whole meaning to an old phrase.  If you do not currently live in a red state, there's a good chance you will be in the near future.  Either you will flee to a red state or a red state will come to you—because voters fed up with blue-state fiscal irresponsibility will elect candidates who promise to pass red-state policies.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), 25 state legislatures are controlled by Republicans and 16 by Democrats, with eight split (i.e., each party controlling one house).  There are 29 Republican governors and 20 Democrats, with one independent.  And there are 20 states where Republicans control both the legislature and governor's mansion vs. 11 Democratic, with 18 split (one party controls the governor's office and the other the legislature).

And though we are a year away from the 2012 election, generic Republican vs. Democratic polls have given Republicans the edge for more than a year.  If that pattern holds—and if blue-state leaders refuse to learn from their policy mistakes, just like their true-blue leader in the White House—it likely means there will be even more red states in 2013...

And when the Blue States and cities are going bankrupt, and come begging a Red congress for bailouts... I hope we are compassionate. I'd suggest we give 'em a helping hand. Including ridding them of burdensome public employee unions, cutting public employee pensions and benefits back to private-sector norms, setting limits on the ratio of supervisors to actual workers, ending gerrymandering... We could help them out by privatizing education, and a lot of other things.

It would be the kind-hearted thing to do...