Who says my comment threads are total garbage? Well… I often do, but of course I’m exaggerating, as there’s always the occasional gem amongst turds, like yesterday’s comment pointing to this post from The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: “If you tax them, will they flee?”
The conclusion? Not really.
As Ezra Klein’s research desk explains, most studies show that rich people don’t flee higher-tax states for lower-tax ones and “the revenue generated by state tax increases on high earners overwhelms that lost from taxpayers’ leaving.” … In fact, raising taxes on the highest-income households — a group that’s enjoyed the greatest rise in incomes and the greatest decline in taxes in recent decades — is a sensible and effective way for states to help offset the huge drop in revenues during the recession.
Tax rates just aren’t a big part of most people’s decisions about where to live — though that doesn’t stop some opponents of raising taxes on the wealthy from stringing together a few anecdotes in hopes that the rest of us will believe millionaires are in full flight from states that have called on them to pay their fair share.
[…] Perhaps the most definitive study, by Princeton University researchers, found that after New Jersey increased taxes on those making over $500,000, it experienced a yearly revenue loss of about $38 million because of those who left — but a gain of more than $1 billion from those who stayed.
I mean, it’s strange enough that one of I-1098 opponent’s loudest arguments against a high-earner’s income tax is that wealthy people are essentially a bunch of selfish, bean-counting misers who will collectively pick up and move to Nevada to avoid it. (A little projection there?) But it’s not even true.
damn it Golden One….enough of this logic!!!!
Right now the folks on the right that aren’t living in a made up lala land are few and far between. And I thought I’d do them, those few conservatives capable of rational thought, a solid by pointing out this website:
http://www.frontporchrepublic.com/
I might disagree with much of what the Front Porch Republic has to say, but unlike the Beckers and the Baggers, there’s generally a valid argument there for me to disagree with.
I’m laughing now when I read that assertion (that taxes on high earners will cause them to flee the state). Because this season there is a new show on HGTV which follows several real-estate brokers as they market upscale Manhattan condos to the filthy rich.
New York in general, and New York City in particular, isn’t exactly a low-tax locality. I mean, really, couldn’t these people afford to move somewhere else if they wanted to do so?
And, of course, you have seriously wealthy people like Bill Gates Sr. and Bill Gates Jr., who would leave town in a moment if they had the means….
Wait, what???? Gates Sr. is the primary force behind the bill to tax high-income people?????
I’ve always been amused by this argument. I have an income that places me a good ways above the 90th percentile in terms of US income distribution, but the only way I can earn a similar income anywhere else is by moving to a place where the cost of living is quite a bit higher than it is here.
People who claim to understand Economics really ought not advance an argument that effectively negates the entire concept of opportunity cost.
@4
The Righties bash Seattle as a hot bed of communism that doesn’t know how to attract or run businesses, despite:
Starbucks
Hale’s Ales
Jones Soda
Pyramid Breweries, Inc.
Redhook Ale Brewery
Tully’s Coffee
Mike’s Hard Lemonade Co.
Dendreon
ZymoGenetics
Trubion
Fisher Communications
Cray Inc.
F5 Networks
Isilon Systems
Vulcan Inc.
Washington Federal Savings
Corbis
Getty Images
Intellectual Ventures
Cutter & Buck
Todd Pacific Shipyards
Diamond Parking
Plum Creek Timber
Windermere Real Estate
John L. Scott
Waggener Edstrom
Fantagraphics Books
Barsuk Records
Sub Pop
Tooth & Nail Records
Amazon.com
Babeland
Blue Nile Inc
Nordstrom
Sur La Table
Car Toys
PCC Natural Markets
Tommy Bahama
Union Bay
NetMotion Wireless
Delicious Monster
Social Strata
Infopop Corporation
RealNetworks
AttachmateWRQ
Avanade
Isilon
The Omni Group
Aero Controls Inc.
Expeditors International
Holland America Line
Ambassadors International
Alaska Airlines
And recently sharked from Tacoma- Frank Russell
(just to name a few companies)
being based in Seattle.
Who needs facts when you’ve got anecdotes, ideology, and speculation to rely upon?
In a nod to the righties that say we never say anything good about the Obama Admin I give you this:
Keep up the good work Obama and crew!
Republican motivation of their voting base is based on exciting the ‘fear of loss’ response. All salesmen know this one.
The Democrats seem to rely upon more of a ‘door knob’ close — which relies on persuasion.
Now I will concede that there are SOME locations where enacting a high earner’s income tax could disrupt residence patterns. For example, if Tennessee were to enact a significant income tax, then some people who work in Chattanooga might decide to reside in Georgia, instead – or maybe even Alabama.
The issue is the source of the income, and the close proximity to low-tax states nearby. There are certainly some other examples, where metropolitan areas sit on the border of the state.
But when it comes to the State of Washington, those examples don’t work. The high-wage earner locations are in the Puget Sound region, right smack in the middle of the state, with no other states within reasonable commuting distance. I guess if there are some wealthy people in Pullman, they could move to Moscow, Idaho, but that’s about it. People working in Vancouver, WA can’t “escape” by moving to Oregon, they already have an income tax. And people working in Bellingham or Blaine will hardly find it helpful to move to Vancouver B.C. in order to commute back over the border daily.
There are all sorts of uber rich folks on Spokane’s south hill, but I can’t most of those folks moving from Spokane’s wonderful south hill to Idaho. The south hill is a fantastic place to live and there’s just nothing that nice in Idaho and you’d be adding a huge commute.
The Economic Opportunity Institute has also explored where the wealthy live, and we found that:
• 3 of the states with the highest top marginal income tax rates (New Jersey, California, and Hawaii) have higher percentages of households with incomes above $200,000 and higher mean incomes for the top 5% than any of the 7 states with no income tax.
• Those 3 high-income-tax states also have both a higher percentage of well-to-do households and higher top incomes than the U.S. average.
• 5 of the 7 states with no income tax have fewer households with incomes over $200,000 than the U.S. average.
• The average income of the top 5% of households is lower than the U.S. average in all the
states with no income tax.
Mrs. slingshot and I don’t plan on leaving anytime soon.
@10, Idaho has an income tax. Also, the sale tax includes food. And there is property tax.
@14
And everyone drives like a complete asshole. Really. If you see Idaho plates, stay out of the way.