The moving van vote

Washington Examiner Editorial:

...

The Tax Foundation recently studied IRS data to track interstate income movements during the past decade. When a person filed a tax return in New York showing $50,000 of income, then filed a return in Florida the next year, the Tax Foundation scored it as a loss of $50,000 in income for New York and a $50,000 gain for Florida.

Using this methodology, the Tax Foundation found that between 2000 and 2010, the big Blue States of New York, California, and Illinois chased off hundreds of thousands of residents taking billions in income with them ($45.6 billion, $29.4 billion, and $20.4 billion respectively). Each of these states have highly progressive, high-marginal rate tax codes. California, for example, has 10 income tax brackets and a top rate of 13.3 percent. New York has eight brackets and an 8.82 percent top rate.

Where did all those formerly Blue State income go? To low-tax, Red State jurisdictions, including Florida (no income tax), Texas (no income tax), and Arizona (4.54 percent top rate). Those three alone raked in $67.3 billion, $17.7 billion, and $17.6 billion, respectively. Thanks to the few federalist principles that are still protected in the Constitution, Americans remain free to vote with their feet and escape economically suffocating places like California in order to move to the vastly more hospital economic climates found in Red States like Texas.
...

A California appeals Court recently abolished a small business tax break and the state immediately began a retroactive collection effort.   All three of these blue states have over promised their employee unions and their pension liability is sucking money out of government services.  So tax payers are payming more and getting less from their state government.