I lied. Back in 2023, I wrote that Part V would be the last segment in my series on blue-to-red tax migration (with Parts I-IV available here, here, here, and here).

But I’ve decided to extend the series because here’s a must-share map showing how some states have lost – or gained – large amounts of taxable income as a result of people “voting with their feet” over a ten-year period.

Notice that the worst states (darker red) are fiscal hellholes such as New York, Illinois, and California.

Meanwhile, the best states (darker green) are flat tax states or – even better – have no state income tax.

The map is part of an editorial in the N.Y. Post that bemoans the exodus of taxpayers – and taxable income – from New York and other high-tax states.

…the wonks at the free-market-advocacy group Unleash Prosperity are out with a study that exposes the true depths of flight from high-tax states. It’s not uncommon to look at the one-year losses and gains of income from internal migration such as taxpayers fleeing New York for Florida, but that fails to capture the long-lasting impact: The migrant’s income is lost (or gained) year after year for the rest of his or her life. This new report used Census and IRS data to calculate the cumulative impact; it finds that New York state has lost more than $500 billion in resident income over the past 10 years, while New Jersey has lost $170 billion. Nearly 2 million New Yorkers have moved away this past last decade; New Jersey has lost 500,000 residents to other states. New York has lost the most income of any state — and only California and Illinois have lost more money than New Jersey.

Much of the underlying research comes from the folks at the Committee to Unleash Prosperity.

Including this chart that shows the cumulative loss of adjusted gross income for the Empire State.

What our friends on the left don’t understand (or pretend not to understand) is that a good chunk of that income would still be in New York – and still be taxed in New York – if politicians in Albany weren’t so greedy.

And let’s not forget that New York City politicians also are greedy, a problem that surely will get worse now that a crazy self-professed socialist has been elected as Mayor.

This won’t end well. Eventually some blue states will implode. When that happens, let’s keep our fingers crossed that the clowns in Washington don’t provide any bailouts.