The latest Census Bureau data on population changes in America should have been a wake-up call to lawmakers in blue states and cities. The Census data provide even further evidence that “soak the rich” tax policies have incited a blue-state meltdown.
California, New York and Illinois all lost the most population last year. These states have nearly lost a combined 5 million people over the last decade. California and New York could both lose another three congressional seats by the end of the decade, and Illinois another two.
Did I mention that these are the three states with the highest taxes?
Is this just a coincidence?
Democratic governors evidently think so. This year, seven blue states are pursuing even higher tax rates on the top 1% of earners, despite the evidence that these policies are detrimental to their citizens.
One such state is Washington. Once an importer of talent and brainpower because of its no-income-tax status, the Dems who control all the levers of power in Olympia just enshrined a 7% capital gains tax, and the Democratic Washington Supreme Court strangely ruled it is constitutional. This is one of the highest taxes on the sale of assets in the country.
State Sen. Noel Frame (D-Seattle) wants a 1% annual tax on financial intangible assets – such as cash, stocks and bonds – over $250 million. And then they wonder why one of the world’s richest human beings, Jeff Bezos, has moved to South Florida.
In Vermont, Dems have just proposed raising their top income tax rate to more than 8%. Pretty soon Ben and Jerry will be the only rich people left in the state – and don’t be surprised if they move out, too.
Meanwhile, Maryland Dems are pushing a “millionaire tax” ($750,000 in income and above), a capital tax and a new corporate tax.
California just raised its top income tax rate to the highest in the U.S. – from 13.3% to 14.4%. The Golden State just moved past New York to reclaim the income tax top spot. They must be so proud. The Dems in Sacramento also expanded the state’s 1.1% payroll tax to include all income earners. The tax was previously applicable only to those making up to around $153,000 annually.
Meanwhile, Jonathan Williams, the chief economist at the American Legislative Exchange Council – an association of more than 2,000 conservative state legislators – reports that eight red states are cutting income taxes including Arkansas, Indiana, Kentucky, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Utah and West Virginia. Oklahoma is set to cut rates this year to as low as 2%. Several of these states now have flat taxes, not multiple tier “progressive” rates. Every state on this list is a red state, except Connecticut.
What does all this mean? The blue-state deep thinkers can’t see that their “progressive” tax systems are bleeding their states dry. Or they don’t care.
Once upon a time, it was the Northeast that was the financial and industrial capital of the world. Now Miami, Nashville, Dallas, Austin, Charlotte, Tampa and Salt Lake City are the hot destinations. The Southeast now produces more GDP than the northeast.
I call it a blue-state dysphoria. They must change their ways or die. So far, their political leaders are choosing the latter course.
Stephen Moore is a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation and co-founder of the Committee to Unleash Prosperity.
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Reprinted with permission from The Center for Individual Freedom.
Two main problems with these states and why they keep voting the same:
Those 2 make up over 50& of the voters and so the working class is getting their back broke to pay for it all. Eventually you are right … it will collapse on them all.
Thanks to Clinton, Obama, Dictator Beijing biden and the democrats they have done nothing but raise taxes and tax everything that wasn’t taxable and still pushing to raise taxes more. And they say it’s for the American people when in reality it’s to make you nothing more than a slave to pay for bigger government and more bureaucrats unaccountable to CONTROL your life leaving you with no money. Just check your wallet (EMPTY).
My family and I live in California. My son is a mechanic working at the same dealership for over 20 years. He makes an above average income and when his wife’s very good income is added in, they pay just about every tax available! Because their children are in school and college, they will remain for a few more years. But come time for retirement they will be selling out and moving to a sane red state! If I’m still alive, I’ll be right on their heels.
Correct! Which is why so many, if not ALL, of the Democrat run states appear so indifferent to the mass exodus of people and huge losses of tax revenue from their states at the present time. The Democrat Governors of ALL those states are counting on another huge federal bailout similar to the ones they all received after via a Democrat controlled Congress after Covid. As long as a Democrat sits in the White House and there are enough RINOs in the Senate willing to “go along to get along” like McConnell and his band of 17 or 18 sellouts were willing to do, the Democrat Governors are all pretty much assured that a way will be found to send another huge bailout of hundreds of billions of federal taxpayer dollars their way. It’s only a matter of when, not if. In the meantime, the Democrat run states see no reason to change their SOP of tax and spend with reckless abandon.
“A heavy or progressive or graduated income tax is necessary for the proper development of communism.”
Karl Marx
Something to think about
The treason party knows all this. Its not ignorance driving them, its marxian idealogy to punish success. No one should be more successful than the least successful. In Russia after the revolution they were deporting and or shooting people for the crime of owning two teapots. Our dems are the spiritual descendants of the Bolsheviks.
I’m from Illinois, and live south of Interstate 80. For several years the personal exemption for state income tax has been indexed to inflation. This year the democrat controlled legislature slipped in a paragraph in the 500 page budget to rescind the inflation adjustment for the 2023 tax year. Would have amounted to $200 for a married and filling jointly.
The legislature voted themselves a nice pay raise! Now no one in the democratic party will take responsibility for putting the language in the bill!
So much for serving the people!
The shocking part is that people keep paying them. Do you see why they armed the IRS.
Higher taxes are the only way to finance the lunacy of the left and there are those who still vote for them
See Paul E comments below TRUTH !!!!
Even in Brunswick, Maine they are illegally using State Taxpayer Dollars to build 60 Brand New Apartments Fully Furnished for Illegal Aliens. EVERYTHING PAID for 2 Years at taxpayer expense from Dictator Beijing biden’s ILLEGAL ALIEN TERRORIST INVASION.
NONE are being built for Maines HOMELESS LEGAL CITIZENS.
And guess what? They RAISED Taxes on LEGAL AMERICAN CITIZENS to PAY for it.
Look at ALL democrat run States and see the same thing happening in one way or another. The democrats are using Federal Tax Dollars to do the same thing in their States. Look at NY, CA, etc..
But the democrats can RAISE TAXES though. Look at ALL the Tax RAISES Dictator Beijing biden has inflicted upon US and STILL RAISING TAXES. Just NOT to be spent on LEGAL AMERICAN CITIZENS.
they can’t stop spending either. What are the blue states going to do when all the millionaires and billionaires move out? Who are they going to tax then?
People in blue states need to be squeezed until there is nothing more to squeeze. Sadly these people are so dense that they need to be near choked to death for the lights to turn on. May there governors and major speed up the process so that America can move on.
It’s going to be a very interesting time when they run all the so-called Rich out of these states and cities and start depending on texting the illegal aliens that are being imported and welcomed into all their cities and states so I guess what it means is they will be texting their citizens and exorbitant amount and the federal government I guess we’ll turn around and pay those illegal aliens tax debts as well as any student debts in medical debts that they might have very so when you turn around and look at it not only are they paying for voters to come in because they’re losing people who would vote against them but they’re paying for taxpayers to come in so the federal government can pay their taxes for them. Talk about it a brain fried bunch of morons. Someone with a IQ over 20 has to have a brain boiling experience every time they try to comprehend what’s going on fear God help us all.
Democrat policies must be based on Monty Python: anybody remember a skit about “Dennis Moore”? He rode through the land continually stealing lupins from the rich and gave them to the poor until the poor became the rich and the rich the poor. He kept doing this until he released “wealth distribution is tricky”. Or “Life of Brian” where they all agreed to call one a woman although not able to have babies through “no fault of his.. er… her own?
The blue state spend crazy they need higher taxes to keep the supply of money coming in for there programs look at our country so far in debt we will never dig our way out not the way it is going that is not just the Dems but everyone up in Washington.
It will shortly be hard to justify raising the taxes in these high SALT states when they run out of people to collect taxes from and don’t have enough funds to cover all the giveaway programs that every Democratic elected official gets a handout from. Yeah right now all the public workers and their unions support these officials while they have their jobs but ask them when services are cut and job staffing is cut.
Aw come on! What state would turn down a multibillion dollar boondoggle high speed rail to its own version of Fresno?
I leave in California and the problems keep getting bigger and bigger with the homeless and housing. More of our tax payers money is going into this crisis that politicians have created.
Blue States in Race to the Bottom