Interstate Migration and Top Earners

Chris EdwardsMy newop ‐​ed in theExaminer looks at the interstate migration of top ‐​earning households. I argue that states such as New York lose a lot when their high taxes drive out top earners, including losing their incomes, investments in startups, and entrepreneurial and charitable activities.Many states are figuring this out, and myNRO op ‐​ed last week discusses the recent wave of income tax cutting. While the leaders of monopoly Democratic states, such as New York, seem oblivious to the chronic damage their states are suffering from out ‐​migration, leaders in states such as Iowa and Nebraska are doing something about it with pro‐​growth tax reforms. These issues are discussed in the forthcomingFiscal Report Card on America ’s Governors.The chart shows something interesting about the interstate migration data, which is availablefrom the IRS. For each state, I  calculated the ratio of in‐​migration to out‐​migration. States losing households have ratios of less than 1.0, and states gaining households have ratios of more than 1.0. For example, New York gained 147,324 households in 2020 and lost 276,550, for a ratio of 0.53. Meanwhile, Florida gai ned 337,375 and lost 256,190, for a ratio of 1.32.The IRS splits out households earning more than $200,000, and I  calculated the migration ratios separately for this group. On the chart, each state is a dot. The horizontal axis is the ratio for all households, and the vertical axis is the...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs