[CNBC] A new report says wealthy Maryland residents may be moving out due to recent tax hikes -- a finding that is sure to escalate the battle over taxing the American rich. Maryland is a red state, with voting controlled by Baltimore City, Prince George's County, and Montgomery County. The western part of the state is blue and the Eastern Shore is mostly blue. The governor is a pretty boy former Baltimore mayor who married into one of the local political dynasties. One of the ads against him in the last campaign called him a "One-man economic wrecking crew," but he's had the help of a solidly machine legislature. He's under the illusion he's a contender for the 2016 presidential nomination. Stranger things have happened, I guess, John Tyler and Grover Clevelland's second term among them.
The study, by the anti-tax group Change Maryland, says that a net 31,000 residents left the state between 2007 and 2010, the tenure of a "millionaire's tax" pushed through by Gov. Martin O'Malley. The tax, which expired in 2010, imposed a rate of 6.25 percent on incomes of more than $1 million a year. The Change Maryland study found that the tax cost Maryland $1.7 billion in lost tax revenues. A county-by-county analysis by Change Maryland also found that the state's wealthiest counties also had some of the largest population outflows.
In total, Maryland has added 24 new taxes or fees in recent years, Change Maryland says. Florida, which has no income-tax, has been a large recipient of Maryland's exiled wealthy.
"Maryland has reached the point of diminishing returns. We're taxing people too much and people are voting with their feet," said Change Maryland Chairman Larry Hogan. "Until we change our focus from tax increases to increasing the tax base, more people are simply going to leave, leading to a downward spiral of raising revenues on fewer citizens."
The finding adds to the renewed debate over raising taxes on the wealthy. In New Jersey, Gov. Chris Christie recently vetoed a millionaire's tax passed by his legislature, while California and other state governments are also considering higher taxes on high earners to fix budget problems. President Obama is expected today to ask Congress to extend tax cuts for those making $250,000 or more -- effectively increasing taxes for the higher earners.
Many contend that higher taxes drive out the highly mobile rich, who can simply move to a lower-tax state or even lower-tax country. Recent data shows that a record 1,800 Americans renounces their citizenship last year.
Some argue, however, that there is little real evidence that higher state taxes drive out large numbers of high earners. Neil Bergsman, director of the Maryland Budget and Tax Policy Institute, said while a number of people left the state between 2007 and 2010, others moved in. The net loss, he said, is "very small," he said.
What's more, he points out that the wealthy usually move because of a job change, life change or retirement rather than taxes.
"There is no evidence that tax structures are a significant determinant in their location choices," Bergsman said.
What's more, he said, Maryland is still minting high-earners and has among the highest incomes and highest concentration of millionaires in the country.
Other studies in New Jersey, Connecticut and Rhode Island have also failed to offer proof that taxes are the main driver of out-migration by the top earners. (See here and here). In some states, weather is a bigger driver of out-migration by the wealthy than taxes.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/10/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
In some states, weather is a bigger driver of out-migration by the wealthy than taxes.
#2
The talk is the governor wants to run for president. I told people before he became governor hold onto your wallet. Hopefully these troubles will hold him back.
#4
Look, when people want to move from CA to west KS, its not for the weather.
Unless you are into prairie fires and tornados; safer than high speed rail on a fault line I guess. Y'all tax refugees, not that I blame ya for flight, just...wipe your feet before showing up. The haughty attitude just does not fit the fact that, perhaps, the simple living is why the place you moved to is affordable. Culture is fine, snottery not so much. Simply put, your politics suck so don't bring them with you; if they were good you wouldn't have to leave.
#5
I didn't see any links to the research in question, so I went to the site, Change Maryland. I don't see any research available, unless one classifies the facts under the "Stay Informed" link as "research." A quick reading suggests that the "research finding" is no more than a post-hoc, ergo propter hoc analysis of IRS migration data: Taxes rose, people left, therefore people left because taxes rose. A study in the true Woody Allen tradition: (a) Socrates is a man. (b) All men are mortal. (c) Therefore, all men are Socrates. Those of us who believe in smaller gummint have to do better than this.
#6
Well, you understand that in even astrophysics they rarely directly observe other planets orbiting stars. Rather they detect perturbations in the movement of the star and extrapolate data to determine the strongly suggested presence of the planet.
Now a while back some Donk pol decided to insult the nation's military by accusing its members of being 'tax evaders'. By the Sailors and Soldiers Civil Relief Act, they aren't required to pay income taxes to states they're assigned to per federal orders if their state of 'residence' [versus 'duty'] is not that same state. Seems a whole lot of military end up with 'residence' in states without income tax.
Barack Obama's Kenyan half brother, George Obama, has given his first ever interview to the maker of an anti-Obama documentary. George Obama,30, lives in Nairobi, Kenya, in a what has been described in a US news report as a shack "like something out of Slumdog Millionaire".
Dinesh D'Souza, author of the book The Roots of Obama's Rage, tracked down George Obama and interviewed him for the film 2016: Obama's America.
In the clip published by the Hollywood Reporter, D'Souza asks George Obama why the half-brother of the most powerful man on the planet lives in poverty. The president's half-brother refuses to criticise him.
"I think he has a family of his own," George Obama says. "I'm a member of his family, but I'm over-age, so I help myself."
"He's got other issues to deal with," he says. "He's taking care of the world, so he's taking care of me."
In an election decided by only 19 votes in the Texas primary this past May, it has been discovered that 18 votes were cast by people who could not possibly be alive. 18 votes were discovered from "voters" born in 1900 and 1901 in Brooks County, Texas.
Democrats are continuing to oppose voter identification laws in Texas.
#4
Brooks County - as of the 2010 census, the population is 7,223. Its county seat is Falfurrias. Brooks is named for James Abijah Brooks, a Texas Ranger and legislator.
If your spreadsheet is not formatted for dates correctly, you can get some 1900 or 1901 dates. I know, because I proofread.
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/10/2012 5:58 Comments ||
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What's the issue about age when the dead can vote, early and often.
Barack Obama has an accountability problem. It's not simply that during the 2008 campaign he made extravagant promises to heal the planet, slow the rise of the oceans, end political divisions in America, and usher in an era of hope and change. It's that as a candidate and in the early days of his presidency, Obama and his top aides made a series of very specific promises on a range of issues.
As a candidate, Obama promised to create five million new energy jobs alone, claimed that by the end of his first term his health care plan would "bring down premiums by $2,500 for the typical family," and guaranteed that his financial rescue plan would help "stop foreclosures." As president-elect, Obama informed us that he had asked two of his top economic advisers, Christina Romer and Jared Bernstein, to conduct a "rigorous analysis" of his economic recovery plan. The report that he released predicted unemployment would not rise above 8 percent if the stimulus plan was passed. And in the first year of his presidency, Obama pledged to "cut the deficit we inherited in half by the end of my first term in office," "lift two million Americans from poverty," and "jolt our economy back to life." Much more RTWT
#1
Barack Obama has an accountability problem. It's not simply that during the 2008 campaign he made extravagant promises to heal the planet, slow the rise of the oceans, end political divisions in America, and usher in an era of hope and change.
#2
The voters we call "Independents" are not independent at all. They are not informed, and not interested in politics. They are emotional.
Emotional voters want and need to get excited. Obama excited them. Now he has lost his luster.
The problem for our side is that no one is excited about Romney. We like him better than Obama (actually, we hate Obama so much that even Romney seems a likely improvement), but we are not excited. And if we aren't excited, then Independents won't get excited.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/10/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
I read 'Strategic Health Cares' website and the bio's of many of the leadership. Little wonder we're losing doctors and medical professionals. The beltway boodle focused parasites are winning!
#2
Over the past decade, it has emerged as one of the premier health care firms in the country. The reason for our success is simple: time and again Strategic Health Care has delivered substantive results for our clientsskillfully, efficiently, and with the utmost ethical standards and integrity.
I wonder how that ever happened with dreck like this?
#4
The DC insiders who will now line their pockets with Obamacare are coming out of the back room deal making area (Lee was once an aid to a Senator). Now that they think they are safe they are unabashedly presenting their nasty, in your face, you can't touch us now, trash talk.
I think this was aimed at who they consider the Tea Party.
Rats boldly running amuck in the barn. Getting close to time to pop these rodents with a few rounds of rat shot.
Posted by: Andy Unagum5522 ||
07/10/2012 12:24 Comments ||
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#5
Think of them as highlevel, healthcare "bundlers" newc. The only difference is, the money they are bundling is derived from US Taxpayers through legislation and taxation, NOT campaign contributors.
#6
That was my impression AU5522. Kind of like talk like a pirate day, except lame; a mardi gras for dull fatuous custodians.
What the epicurians would call the White Trash I know, would not only have the car out of the ditch yesterday, they would have changed all the tires first, put on mud flaps, cleaned the spark plugs, filled the tank with high octane, blew out of the ditch, and played a round of par golf at a beer per hole.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[CNBC] A new report says wealthy Maryland residents may be moving out due to recent tax hikes -- a finding that is sure to escalate the battle over taxing the American rich.
