Several states and cities have developed policies designed to attract retirees, hoping to position their communities as future homes for the retirement years of high-spending, low-service-consuming elders. In this article, attention is focused on issues of public expenditures. Although near-retirement-age populations seem to have lower demands for public goods, these preferences quickly change, and communities with larger proportions of postretirement people in their population spend more for public services. Political tensions may result. Thus there may be no economic boom in attracting retirement or preretirement-age populations to a community.
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