There is a fascinating analysis in the Wall Street Journal by Allysia Finley and Kate LaVoie on the effects of out-migration on states’ ability to tax:
New IRS data compiled by research outfit Wirepoints illustrate the flight from high- to low-tax states. The chart above shows the adjusted gross income (AGI) that states lost or gained from population migration in 2019 as a share of their total AGI. States in the Sun Belt and Mountain West generally gained income while those in the Northeast and Midwest lost income.
The image above may be too small for you to read. There is a larger available by clicking on the image. Now you may spy with you little eye that Illinois doesn’t appear in that chart at all. I turned to the original report from Wirepoints and it displayed pretty much what I expected:
Of course Illinois was dead last. It probably didn’t help that Illinois Gov. Pritzker was touting his graduated income tax for Illinois which Illinois’s citizens wisely rejected.
Keep in mind that these results are for 2019. I can only speculate what the comparable charts for 2020 would show for the biggest losers: California, New York, and Illinois. I’m going to take a flyer and suggest that it wasn’t good news.
On the other end of the list Tx is not as far up as reputation would
suggest.
ID and NV were surprisingly ( to me) higher.
NV consists of what, Vegas and Reno, gaming has exploded nationwide and online. Yet they thrive. Must be doing something right.
Idaho and Nevada are the beneficiaries if that’s the right word of flight from California.