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New York state has lost $500 billion in resident income over the past ten years due to residents leaving the state.
Christopher Sadowski
In the aftermath of an election where New Jersey chose to stay left and New York City opted to go farther left — and one year before the Empire State faces its own choice — the wonks at the free-market-advocacy group Unleash Prosperity are out with a study that exposes the true depths of flight from high-tax states.
It’s not uncommon to look at the one-year losses and gains of income from internal migration such as taxpayers fleeing New York for Florida, but that fails to capture the long-lasting impact: The migrant’s income is lost (or gained) year after year for the rest of his or her life.
This new report used Census and IRS data to calculate the cumulative impact; it finds that New York state has lost more than $500 billion in resident income over the past 10 years, while New Jersey has lost $170 billion.
Nearly 2 million New Yorkers have moved away this past last decade; New Jersey has lost 500,000 residents to other states.
New York has lost the most income of any state — and only California and Illinois have lost more money than New Jersey.
The folks who’ve fled (especially to low-tax Texas, Florida, Tennessee and so on) don’t spend in New York or New Jersey, while the states lose billions in taxes.
To be clear: It’s not just taxes that push people to move away; rising crime and other sinking quality-of-life issues matter, too — but soaring taxes seem to go hand-in-hand with those other problems these days: Big government tends to be failing government, too.
That’s likely why the exodus is far broader than just high-end earners, such that New York’s likely to lose at least four House seats after the 2030 Census and New Jersey two more.
Economist Stephen Moore, one author of the Unleash Prosperity report, concludes: “Unfortunately, Billy Joel had it right: in New York and New Jersey, folks aren’t moving up, they’re moving out. One thing is for certain, any increase in tax rates on the rich could turn this outmigration into a stampede.”
English (US)