Voting with Our Feel Redux–Leaving High-Tax States for Low-Tax States

Richard Vedder of The Heartland Institute looks at migration trends, and how tax climate has influenced them, with pretty impressive supporting numbers:

One of the great stories of modern times has been barely mentioned in the popular print media, has been the subject of no movies, and is rarely discussed on talk radio. Right before our eyes, one of the great migrations in human history is going on, one that has led millions of Americans to move during the past decade.

Specifically, people are fleeing high-tax, big-government states for low-tax havens where they can keep more of their income.

Compare the nine states that do not have a general state income tax with the 41 states that do. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, from April 1, 2000 through June 30, 2004, a total of 1,318,963 native-born Americans moved into the no-income-tax states from those states taxing a portion of people’s income. This is net of persons moving in the other direction.

This movement of 310,000 persons a year is a continuation of a trend of the 1990s, when about 3 million persons made similar moves. From 1990 to the present, about 4.6 million persons have fled the income tax states–a vastly larger number than moved from East Germany to West Germany in the 15 years before the Communists built the Berlin Wall.

And people have been voting with their feet to avoid all taxes, not just those on income.

For example, my research shows 2,845,700 Americans moved into the 10 states with the overall lowest state and local tax burden in the 1990s, from other states. Meanwhile, there was a net out-migration of 2,151,300 from the 10 states with the highest tax burdens.