One of the most unfortunate features of Trump’s Big Beautiful
Bill is that it expands the deduction for state and local taxes, thus
weakening one of the best provisions of the 2017 tax package.
This is bad news since it is foolish to have a loophole that makes it easier for states to impose higher taxes to fund more wasteful government.
For evidence, let’s consider a comparison of Florida and New York.
And we’ll start with this chart, which shows that New York spends far
more, on a per-capita basis, than Florida.
The chart comes from a new report by David Ditch of the Economic Policy Innovation Center.
He explains why it is very foolish for taxpayers elsewhere in the country to subsidize New York profligacy.
The House-passed OBBB increases the SALT deduction from
$10,000 to $40,000 per taxpayer at a cost of $377 billion over 10 years,
leaving less room for pro-growth tax reforms. …
A review of the
governance of New York State shows the punishingly high state and local
taxes paid by Empire State residents benefit wasteful and corrupt
bureaucracies.
Increasing the SALT deduction would further subsidize New York’s
dysfunction. Spreading the costs across the country would encourage more
graft… Contrasting New York’s budget with that of Florida is
instructive. …
In 2000, New York State spending per capita was already
30% higher than Florida. By 2024, New York spent 133% more per capita
than Florida. …It is understandable that representatives of high-tax
districts in New York want to assist their constituents. However,
threatening to force massive tax hikes on all Americans for the sake of a
bloated SALT deduction is the wrong solution.
The report also explains that New York is abusing the Medicaid program, which is yet another reason why that program desperately needs reform.
But here’s the part of David’s report that is even more astounding, albeit in a depressing way.
New York’s per-student spending is the highest in the
nation, including an average of $35,000 per student this year. …Public
school spending is driven by the demands of politically powerful
teachers’ unions. …Yet, higher education spending has produced worse
outcomes. In 2022, New York’s 4th graders ranked 36th in the nation in
reading and 46th in the nation in math. Meanwhile, Florida spends about
$13,000 per student and its 4th graders rank 3rd in the nation in
reading and 4th in the nation in math.
More money leading to worse results is not a surprise. But this is the steroid-fueled version.
I’ll close by sharing a chart from the Committee to Unleash Prosperity.
Is anyone surprised to see that people are moving from New York to Florida and not the other way?
P.S. For those who want additional comparisons of bad governance in
New York and good governance in Florida, here are the previous editions
in this series:
Today, let’s look at international tax migration. I’ve addressed this
issue before, but generally in the context of individual countries that
are attracting or repelling entrepreneurs, investors, business owners, inventors, and other people that are big net contributors.
The migratory movements of upper-income taxpayers are a very
important leading indicator of whether a country has (or is expected to
have) good policy or bad policy.
Based on this chart, that’s very bad news for China, the U.K., and
India and very good news for Singapore, the United States, and the
United Arab Emirates (UAE).
However, if you adjust for population, what we’re really looking at
is horrible news for the United Kingdom and very impressive results for
Singapore and UAE.
But why is the United Kingdom losing so many high-value households?
For the simple (and stupid) reason that the Labour Party is turning
the U.K from a net importer of rich people into a net exporter of rich
people.
That’s because of expected increases in death taxes and capital gains
taxes, along with taxes on “non-doms” that will drive away upper-income
foreigners who reside in the U.K.
Wealthy individuals and entrepreneurs are already fleeing
Britain as fears grow over a raft of tax rises in Rachel Reeves’s first
Budget. An exodus is being reported by bankers, financial advisers and
business chiefs…
Ceri Vokes, a partner at law firm Withers Worldwide,
who works with entrepreneurs and private equity executives, said
a number of her wealthy clients had already moved overseas this year,
with the election “the main driver”. …
Those packing their bags and
moving overseas are typically entrepreneurs and private equity
executives in the top income bracket, she said. Italy, the United Arab
Emirates (UAE) and Switzerland are among the most popular destinations.
…Charlie Mullins, the founder of Pimlico Plumbers who has recently
relocated to Spain, said: “I don’t like the idea of the capital gains
[changes], I don’t like the idea of inheritance tax. …
“I know quite a
few millionaires and billionaires who have left the UK, set up in Monaco
or Dubai. Italy are offering a good deal now.
Now that we’ve looked at self-destructive policies from the U.K., let’s broaden the discussion.
The Financial Post in Canada has a story looking at the global tug-of-war between the governments that want rich people and the ones that don’t.
Here are some excerpts.
Europe’s multimillionaires are restless. …It has never
been so easy for the super-rich to relocate. As a result, the
competition to attract wealthy people using tax sweeteners as well as
citizenships or paths to residency has also intensified. Newer
jurisdictions such as Dubai and Singapore are muscling in on traditional
territories such as the U.K., Switzerland and Monaco. …
Before its
recently scheduled abolition, the U.K.’s “non-dom” system was the
world’s longest-lasting tax-privileged regime, with roots going back two
centuries…
The second most well-established regime of tax privilege is
Switzerland’s, …whereby wealthy individuals reach bespoke agreements
with local cantonal authorities regarding the tax rates they pay.
The
most recent national figures show over 4,500 people paid tax in this
way. …several new contenders have introduced tax-privileged systems
purposely designed to entice wealthy foreigners, including Cyprus,
Greece, Italy, Malta, Portugal and Spain. Further afield, city-states
Dubai and Singapore have also been vying to attract wealthy expats with
offers of low or, in the case of Dubai, no income or capital taxes for
individuals. …in 2024, a record 128,000 millionaires will relocate,
eclipsing the previous record of 120,000 set last year. …
China is also
suffering from an exodus of super-wealthy citizens following its
draconian zero-COVID policies and President Xi Jinping’s “common
prosperity” agenda of redistributing wealth.
In most cases, successful people are moving because they don’t want governments to take too much of their money.
But in some cases, such as China,
people probably have broader concerns about the direction of their
country. They may even pay more tax if they emigrate to the U.S.,
Canada, or Australia.
The final point to add is that people should have the right to
emigrate. That does not mean that other countries have an obligation to
accept them, of course, but it’s a no-brainer to roll out the welcome
mat for the “golden geese.”
P.S. Unsurprisingly, OECD bureaucrats are hostile to tax-motivated migration. They want taxpayers to be fenced in so that governments can treat them like sheep to be sheared.
I’m a big fan of tax competition. I cheer when jobs, investment, and people (or even booze) move from high-tax jurisdictions to low-tax jurisdictions.
This increases the rewards for good policy and also increases the punishment for bad policy.
Given my interest in the topic, I obviously can’t resist sharing this
chart, which shows the states benefiting from an influx of successful
young people.
I want to emphasize two things about this data.
First, you’ll notice that eight of these states either have no income tax (Florida, Texas, Washington, Tennessee, and Nevada) or a flat tax (Colorado, North Carolina, and Arizona).
Second, it goes without saying (but I’ll say it anyhow) that states
should be anxious to attract successful young people. These are
households that are unlikely to be mooching off the government. Instead,
they’ll be the geese laying the golden eggs.
So it makes no sense to impose policies that cause them to fly away.
Speaking of which, the above chart comes from a report
by smartasset.com. Here’s an excerpt summarizing some highlights and
also identifying the states that are driving away successful young
people.
Many affluent young people often relocate for better
jobs, lifestyle upgrades and tax advantages… With this in mind,
SmartAsset used IRS data to rank states by the net inflow of young and
rich households – those earning at least $200,000 per year and aged 26
to 35.
…
Florida and Texas attract more than double the young and rich
households as any other state. …Half of states attracting the most young
and rich households don’t charge state income tax. …
California lost
over 3,000 young and rich households. …Illinois lost second-most
studywide with an emigration of 1,323 households. The outflow was worth
approximately $5.1 billion in taxes. Massachusetts lost a net of 1,102,
and New York ranked fourth-lowest with a net loss of 345 households.
For what it’s worth, it might also make sense to show the data after
adjusting for state population. That presumably would boost the ranking
of states such as Colorado and Nevada and hurt the ranking of places
such as Massachusetts (a state that almost surely will suffer more out-migration).
But however you slice the date, the results will always be the same. As noted in my five-part series (here, here, here, here, and here), people of all ages are escaping blue states.
P.S. I’m assuming that New Jersey is a top-10 state merely because of young people escaping New York (unless, of course, some of them got lost trying to find the good Jersey).
P.P.S. The state of Washington arguably is in danger of getting
kicked out of the no-income-tax club since politicians have imposed a capital gains tax notwithstanding disapproval by voters.
When these people move, their income moves with them. And this chart shows that the cumulative impact can be very large.
Notice, by the way, that most of the states gaining taxable income (all but South Carolina) don’t have state income taxes.
By contrast, the states losing taxable income consistently rankverylow when measuring fiscal policy.
The chart comes from the Wall Street Journal, which opined about this trend based on some new IRS data.
The pandemic lockdowns accelerated flight from
Democratic-run states with onerous taxes and a high cost of living. The
latest data from the Internal Revenue Service shows that the exodus has
continued after life got back to quasi-normal.
…California ranked, again, as the biggest income loser ($23.8 billion)
in 2022, followed by New York ($14.2 billion), Illinois ($9.8 billion),
New Jersey ($5.3 billion) and Massachusetts ($3.9 billion). The top
gainers were Florida ($36 billion), Texas ($10.1 billion), South
Carolina ($4.8 billion), Tennessee ($4.7 billion) and North Carolina
($4.6 billion). …the flight from progressive states far surpassed
pre-pandemic levels.
California lost nearly three times as much income
in 2022 to other states as it did in 2019. New Jersey’s net income loss
hit a record in 2022… If Americans living in incorrigibly progressive
states want change, they will have to vote with their feet and wallets.
What’s the moral of the story?
The geese with the golden eggs can fly away when they’re mistreated.
And that’s very bad news for certain states. It may even be a recipe for eventual bankruptcy.
You know that little voice in your head that prevents you from saying the things you shouldn't say. Yeah, I don't have that!
By Rich Kozlovich
America's major cities are economic disasters and crime ridden sewers, and you can thank leftists Democrats for that, along with their sick allies in the media, and most of the mayors of those cities have black administrations. In 2021 Daniel Greenfield listed the 14 worst mayors in America, and of
those 14, all the white mayors but one were replaced by black mayors. But each and every one of them then, as well as now, are blatant far
left racists and Democrats, and they've turned their cities in to crime
ridden sewers. Oh, and one more thing. The truth isn't racist, it's just the truth.
Biden's administration has created an immigration nightmare to the point we now have ‘Burglary Tourists who fly in to rob Americans:
"Democrat-run
cities are now magnets for every terrible thing in the
world: an invasion of illegal aliens, violent criminals, burglaries,
drug abuse, and pervasive homelessness. The moment you tolerate this
behavior, you invite more of it............No sympathy. None."
Then we have these famous and/or wealthy people who promote all these
leftist narratives, and then find they've created a disaster. But do they
change their minds? No. They change their addresses! Then, unlike the typical citizen of these communities, they can afford to move
somewhere else. Contaminating stable communities, and states with their
insane rantings.
But that's not just in America's major cities. It's true in small town America as well. These politicians use public funds as if they were using ATM's, and any condemnation of their blatantly criminal activity is called racist! In the case of these next two nitwits, racism and misogyny.
See also “The black, female, big-spending Illinois mayor claiming racism and misogyny has a point” by Andrea Widburg, here.
Henyard And Bowser: Two Racist Mayors Telling Lies And Abusing Constituents-By Milt Harris ——Bio and Archives--April 16, 2024 - Muriel
Bowser and Tiffany Henyard are two racist black Democrat mayors who are
misusing funds and, by doing so, are abusing their constituents. Over
the past weekend, Bowser made plans to attend the Masters Golf
Tournament in Augusta, Georgia. On Saturday, she updated her public
calendar, stating that her visit to Augusta was for sports and economic
development purposes.......
Embattled Democrat mayor accused of using police as personal ‘Gestapo’ to target those who didn’t support her campaign- February 22, 2024 By Olivia Murray - By
now, you’ve probably heard of Tiffany Henyard, the embattled
Biden-loving Democrat mayor of Dolton, Illinois, who recently came under
fire for raking in a “combined salary of nearly $300k”
to fund her glamorous first-class lifestyle and high-maintenance beauty
routine—for context, the town’s residents have a median income of
around $24,000. But
Henyard refused to concede that perhaps isn’t the best example of a
civil servant and lambasted her dissenters, telling them they should be
“ashamed” of themselves for daring to petition for accountability and
financial transparency. (Note: all Henyard’s critics were also black.) Well there’s been a development, and the allegations are simply scandalous. Here’s the story, from Cristina Laila at The Gateway Pundit:
Dolton,
Illinois Mayor Tiffany Henyard is now under FBI investigation for
abusing her power after she shut down businesses that didn’t donate to
her campaign.…One business owner told The New York Post
that he made one contribution to Henyard and her minions kept coming
after him demanding more money. When he didn’t comply, Henyard shut down
his trucking business.…Tiffany
Henyard reportedly used the police as her personal Gestapo to shut down
more than a dozen businesses after they refused to give her money. Lawrence
Gardner owns a U-Haul rental and trucking business in south suburban
Dolton and says he went to the FBI several months ago, frustrated that
the Village of Dolton would not renew his business license.…Gardner
said he's been harassed and his business raided and shut down by Dolton
Police. Gardner believes it’s retaliation after he refused to make a
donation to a civic event sponsored by Dolton Mayor Tiffany Henyard.…Dewayne Wood has been trying to renew the business license for his restaurant for nearly a year.…Wood
has not talked to the FBI, but he believes he can’t get ‘Wood’s
Kitchen’ approved because he has provided catering to several Dolton
trustees who are engaged in a political fight with Henyard. ‘I
think I've been targeted because of my association, affiliation with a
certain group of people,’ Wood said. ‘The trustees. I’ve cooked for the
trustees.’..............
A mayor’s deranged war on transparency- April 10, 2024 By
Robyn Dolgin - Dolton, Illinois mayor Tiffany Henyard offered a memorable non-mea-culpa when confronting demands for an FBI probe into her spending spree using public funds. First, she reminded her constituents in the bankrupt small town of
Dolton that she is “a black woman in power.” Does that mean she’s
bulletproof because of checking off a couple of DEI boxes? Her next step
-- as a minority politician -- was to continue to block demands for
access to the city’s financial records and to assure her voters she
would continue to “keep loving on them.” Her warm-fuzzy homilies are wearing thin as hard-working vendors --
who fulfilled their contracts to pave highways and maintain foliage -–
remain unpaid. It’s difficult for Mayor Henyard to toss out the “r” bomb
-- racism -- because many of her detractors share the same ethnic
classification........
Chicago's Lori Lightfoot lands $400/hour job investigating 'worst mayor in America'-
'We feel this option will give us an independent process'-- April 9,
2024- Former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has been appointed by the
trustees of Dolton, Illinois as a special investigator to probe Dolton's
embattled mayor, Tiffany Henyard – for $400 per hour. Henyard is
accused of mishandling funds. Last month she vetoed calls
for an investigation into herself, which was overturned Monday night. A
former city employee also accused Henyard of retaliation after she says a
village trustee sexually assaulted her on a trip to Las Vegas last
year, after which she was fired after speaking up. .....
Sanctuary Cities Helped Keep 3x-Deported MS-13 Gang Member in U.S. - John Binder An MS-13 Gang member, previously deported
three times, with a long criminal record was repeatedly shielded from
federal immigration enforcement thanks to the sanctuary jurisdictions
of Prince George’s County, Maryland and Washington, DC. The 36-year-old Salvadoran national has a documented
record with the violent MS-13 Gang, had been arrested in the United
States on 17 separate occasions dating back to December 2005, and was
deported three times by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents
before returning to the U.S. again, likely after illegally crossing the
southern border for a fourth time......
The Anti-Cultural Nihilism of the Left- By Paul Krause July
25, 2010 - The final battle lines for America are the history wars. Conservatives are losing. There have already been two fundamental
revolutions that have reshaped, reconstituted, restructured American
society. The first was Abraham Lincoln and the subjugation of the
primacy of the states, Northern and Southern alike, to the dictates of
executive fiat and the federal government. The second was Franklin
Roosevelt and the subjugation of civil society to federal
bureaucracy. The first was a political revolution, the second a social
revolution. The third revolution is the ongoing cultural revolution, a
revolution that includes factors such as immigration, the teaching and
reception of European and North American history, and our own
self-understanding as a people with an inheritance and a future......
The Biden administration is destroying our national security infrastructure - March 5, 2024 By
Andrea Widburg -
America
has been facing a helium crisis that goes far beyond balloons and
threatens our medical care and military readiness. Thankfully, a new
helium reservoir has just been discovered, but the ongoing helium
shortage won’t instantly go away and, combined with the Biden
administration’s many anti-military policies, still leaves us vulnerable
to a military strike by a foreign actor. On Friday, news broke about the helium reservoir, along with the fact that (a) our national security depends on helium, (b) we’re dangerously low on that essential......
American Marxism and Unalienable Rights
-By
Steve McCann
American
Marxists have recently launched a new campaign in their ongoing war on
America and its founding. Their latest salvo is the proposition that
so-called “Christian Nationalism” is an existential threat to the
nation. They define Christian Nationalism
as: “an ideology that asserts all civic life in the U.S. should be
organized according to a particularly conservative and ethnocentric
expression of Christianity.” The American Marxists absurdly claim that those who supposedly adhere
to this ideology believe in: strict moral traditionalism,
the retention of social hierarchies,
authoritarian control exercised by the “right” people; and,
White supremacy and strict ethno-racial boundaries.
In reality, this drumbeat of Christian Nationalism is yet another
means of accusing 45% of Americans
who identify as evangelicals and Catholics and may vote for Donald
Trump as being “racists and deplorables.” A deliberate tactic intended
to further incite racial and tribal animosity among the electorate in a
crucially important election year........
The failures and pathology of leftism are on display across America - September 24, 2023 By Andrea Widburg - Midwestern cities. They’re in the heart of the
region that leftists now speak of derogatorily as “the flyover states.”
But once, they were called the “heartland” because they embodied true
American qualities. And once upon a time, they did embody true
American qualities. Back in the day, the government promised people
that, if they could clear the land and make it usable, they could have
the land. On the one hand, it was a giveaway but, on the other hand,
there was nothing “free” about it. Instead, it was payment for painful,
backbreaking, heartbreaking services rendered.
You see the products of these labors all
over the Midwest. Beautiful, thoughtfully laid-out cities, charming
small towns, endless green fields. Just a few years ago, even the
Democrat-run cities, while they had their bad sides and poverty, were
mostly nice places—really nice places—to live................ the Midwest’s decline is the
BLM/Antifa riots that tore apart America—and that started in
Minneapolis itself with George Floyd’s drug-related death while in
police custody. I used to visit Minneapolis/St. Paul frequently before
the riots and was invariably impressed by what a lovely duo of cities it
was—well-ordered, beautiful, and safe. Now, though, the young people I
knew who lived there are leaving because it’s too dangerous.......
Massachusetts Spending $64 a Day to Feed Each Migrant… On Track to Spend $1 Billion By 2025 - State records show that Massachusetts is spending
about $64 per migrant per day to feed those in state care, a cost that
is contributing to the expected one billion dollars in expenses to be
spent by the Bay State by 2025. The latest numbers show that the state is paying out
$16 for breakfast, $17 for lunch, and a whopping $31 for every dinner
every day, according to WBZ-TV..............
Democrat-Run Austin at ‘Brink’ Due to Police ‘Staffing Collapse’ - John Nolte Today’s heartwarming story of Democrats
getting what they voted for takes us to Austin, Texas, where a police
staffing crisis exploded the murder rate, and according to a report
there were no cops at all in a section of the city on one Saturday in
February. “Austin, Texas residents are expressing outrage over
police staffing shortages and longer 911-call response times in the
aftermath of the city council’s vote to defund the department in 2020,”
the New York Postreported. It gets better….....
Bail Set at $1 - Man Accused of Raping, Impregnating Teen Enjoys Charitable Release Due to Prosecution Flub- By Jack Davis
September 24, 2023 - Bail Set at $1 - Man Accused of
Raping, Impregnating Teen Enjoys Charitable Release Due to Prosecution
Flub. 25-year-old Texas man facing accusations of raping a 16-year-old
is
no longer in jail due to a delay by prosecutors in obtaining an
indictment against him. According to KTRK-TV,
Luis Sanchez posted the $1 bail set by a judge last week and no longer
is on the roster of Harris County Jail inmates. Sanchez was arrested in
May on a charge of sexual assault of a child
under the age of 17, related to an April 2022 incident.........
Dallas attacks lawful businesses on behalf of animal-rights groups
- The Dallas City Council is about to introduce an ordinance to ban
horse-drawn carriages in the City of Dallas, attempting to appease the
animal rights agenda. The proposed ordinance is part of an ongoing
national campaign spearheaded by well-funded radical animal rights
organizations. But that’s only part of the story. Last year, in 2023,
the Texas State Legislature passed a bill called the Regulatory
Consistency Act (HB2127) which prohibits local cities, counties, and
local municipalities from adopting or enforcing an ordinance, order,
rule, or policy that bans an existing law-abiding business. According
to this new law, Dallas City Council is acting unlawfully by introducing
this ordinance to ban horse-drawn carriage businesses in the city of
Dallas.
Antifa's Violent Attack on the Portland 'Peoples Truck Convoy' Was Openly Plotted on Twitter- By Victoria Taft Apr 30, 2022 - The
“People’s Convoy” of truckers was attacked by known Antifa
members who dropped projectiles, paintballs, eggs, and other objects at
passing motorists in hopes of injuring drivers and stopping the convoy.
The attack could have been deadly. And it was openly organized on
Twitter. But sure, let’s censor conservative speech, Silicon Valley and
Alejandro Mayorkas. Five people wearing masks stationed themselves on an I-205 overpass,
which ribbons through Portland’s east side, and recklessly and wantonly
threw objects at passing motorists and the convoy. They displayed a sign
reading, “Trump Lost.” Apparently, the Jacobins assumed that everyone
is as weak-minded as they were and that their words would trigger …
something. The assault on the vehicles forced motorists to stop, causing a
backup on a busy Friday afternoon on the interstate freeway that creates
a beltway around parts of Southwest Washington and Portland.........
Zero Students Proficient in Math at 40 Percent of Baltimore High Schools- Not a single student is proficient in math at 40%
of Baltimore public high schools in the spring of 2023, according to
state exam results obtained by Fox45. Nearly 2,000 students took the
state math exam across the 13 schools with no proficient students. Of
the students who took the exam at...
How Democrats went 'Evita' on the spending in their solid blue cities and states By Monica Showalter
February 27, 2024 Democrats have no ideas of value to sell to voters, so they spend money to buy votes. In blue cities and states, they spend
big, bringing states and cities gargantuan debts and deficits, and never
concern themselves for a minute about where the money to pay it back is
going to come from. Whether it's green schemes with its
cash-to-cronies, bloated union pensions for do-nothing government
workers, free five-star hotels, or health care for illegal aliens, or
other boondoggles, it's spend, and spend again. And why not? Someone else will always bail them out..........
Johnson’s Chicago: 13 Armed Robberies in 8 Hours - AWR Hawkins Police
are trying to identify suspects after 13 armed robberies occurred in
Chicago during an 8-hour time frame on Saturday. NBC 5 reported the
robberies were all conducted by a group of men who jumped out of a
vehicle, pulled handguns on their victims, and demanded that they hand
over cash and property......
Americans Leaving Cities Destroyed by Democrats - Jeff Crouere |
Mar 18, 2024- For
decades, Democrats have controlled the nation’s largest cities. The
results have been catastrophic, including high crime rates, blight,
failing public educational systems, rampant poverty, and an expanding
homeless population. These
horrific outcomes are due to Democrats supporting failed policies, such
as raising taxes, increasing regulations, growing the government, and
refusing to prosecute violent criminals. Consequently, citizens voted
with their feet and left in droves, a trend which has started to
accelerate. For example, while the country’s population soared sixty million to 341 million since 2000, it was a much different situation in the progressive hellhole of Chicago. The “Windy City” lost 231,000 people in 24 years, the most out migration of any city in the nation.
Chicago Teachers Union president with $50B in new demands tells Chicagoans to stop asking about the ‘cost’ - March 8, 2024 By
Olivia Murray -
In
June, the contract between the Chicago Teachers Union and the city’s
public school system is set to expire, at which point, the two parties
will enter into negotiations, and union president Stacy Davis Gates
already has a list of proposed increases she expects to range in the
tens of billions. According to reporter Mark Glennon
and Wirepoints, Davis Gates spoke before a crowd at the City Club of
Chicago on Tuesday to address the upcoming negotiations, saying “it’s
gonna get a little hot in this city” because as reported by the Chicago Sun Times, the list of demands she was coming to the table with are “defiant” contract stipulations. Elsewhere,
other Wirepoints journalists reported that Davis Gates has publicly
vocalized that under her leadership, the union is on a mission to
achieve “cultural transformation” within the city’s school system as
well as the city itself—the police presence in schools has already been
eliminated—and some of the “defiant” new proposals she’ll be bringing to
the negotiating table in June include:........
My Take - When
you dance with the Devil you don't choose the dance, you don't call the
tune, and you can't leave the dance floor. Schadenfreude Chicago,
you're getting exactly what you deserve. I think the author's South Africa analogy is a good one, and it's playing out in
all of America's major cities. Most if not all of them run by
Democrats and most of them run by black administrations.RK
Desperate for money, Chicago sues ‘Big Oil’- February 22, 2024 by Chris Talgo - February 22, 2024
Desperate for money, Chicago sues ‘Big Oil’
By Chris Talgo
Last year, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson sued Hyundai and Kia based on
the absurd allegation that the vehicles they make are too easy to steal.
Now, Johnson has set his sights on “Big Oil,” claiming that British
Petroleum, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil, Phillips 66, Shell, and
the American Petroleum Institute deceived “Chicago consumers about the
climate dangers associated with their products.”
“There is no justice without accountability,” said Johnson. “From the
unprecedented poor air quality that we experienced last summer to the
basement floodings that our residents on the West Side experienced, the
consequences of this crisis are severe, as are the costs of surviving
them. That is why we are seeking to hold these Defendants accountable.”......
Ryan Gosling, Eva Mendes Latest Celebrities to Leave Los Angeles - David Ng No more La La Land for Ryan Gosling. You can add Ryan Gosling and Eva Mendes to the list
of Hollywood celebrities who have bid farewell to Los Angeles. The
celebrity couple moved out of L.A. with their two daughters to give
their kids a quieter childhood, a source toldPeople magazine. “For them, the most important job is their girls. Everything else comes second,” the unnamed source told People.
“And their girls are thriving. They left L.A. to live a bit further
north, away from Hollywood. They didn’t want the girls to grow up around
other celebrity kids.”...........
Nolte: ‘Burglary Tourists’ Fly in from South America to Rob Dem-Run Los Angeles - John Nolte Tourism is up in Democrat-run Los Angeles — “burglary tourism”: from South America. Well, at least someone wants to visit that shithole. LAPD Deputy Chief Alan Hamilton told the far-left and slowly dying Los Angeles Times that “South American theft groups are not new in L.A., but they have become more active in recent months.” The Times adds: “He cautioned that it’s difficult to know
for certain how many robberies can be attributed to foreign burglars,
but said evidence indicates they are behind scores of break-ins.” In one
area, north of the 118 freeway, he estimates there “were 94 burglaries,
many probably committed by these crews.”.......
San Francisco provides an insight into the economic collapse of leftist polities By Andrea Widburg February 22, 2024 - Judge Erdogon - (and I always want to call him Erdogan,
which I’m sure is Freudian) may have dealt an economic death blow to
New York when he ruled against Donald Trump to the tune of almost half a
billion dollars. Businesses and ordinary people have announced they
intend to boycott New York, whether for self-protection or principle.
But what happens when it’s the governing body that engages in boycotts?
That turns out to be just as much of a death blow. The tale of San
Francisco’s decision to boycott 30 states because the city disagreed
with their politics is a wonderful example of leftist hubris and the
economic havoc it wreaks......
Nightmare: Squatters take over home, and OWNER gets arrested! Changed locks while 'tenant' was away from residence -By Bob Unruh March 19, 2024 -In the topsy-turvy America today, where conservatives are jailed and
liberals let off, where judges turn violent criminals loose and the Deep
State's political enemies are behind bars, where illegal aliens have
rights and property owners don't, this scenario probably shouldn't
surprise: It is a case of squatters taking over a privately owned home
and the owner getting arrested......
When Illegal Aliens Catch Wind of the Squatting Laws in Blue Cities, It’s Going to Get Ugly - Every now and then, I hear ideas or come across stories that I don’t
want to put in writing. These usually surround information that I do not
want out there because I don’t want to give anybody ideas. The article
below is one of those cases; I didn’t want illegal aliens to figure out
how they can further exploit one of the most ludicrous types of laws on
the books in many major cities and leftist states. With Fox News
covering it and other outlets picking it up, it’s time to warn
Americans about a huge potential problem: Illegal aliens hopping on the
squatter bandwagon. Squatting has become such a problem in many
Democrat-run (and some RINO-run) cities and states that homeowners are
rushing to sell any rental properties that sit vacant. In areas with
loose squatter laws, the asset of owning rental homes has become a major
liability when squatters take “ownership” and live in these homes
rent-free for weeks or even months. Sometimes, it can extend for years
and cost the actual homeowner tens of thousands of dollars just to get
their property back.............
The New York Fire Department goes full North Korean on dissidents - March 10, 2024 By
Andrea Widburg - A
state Attorney General is supposed to enforce the law impartially for
the benefit of all citizens. However, New York’s AG, Letitia James, ran
on an inherently political platform, vowing that she would destroy
President Trump—and she’s tried to keep that promise. No wonder, then,
that when she spoke at a Fire Department of New York (“FDNY”) promotion
ceremony on Thursday, she got a political response from the assembled
crowd: Boos. Now, the FDNY has gone full North Korean: Those who booed
must turn themselves in for punishment and reeducation or be “hunted
down.” Part One of this saga is Letitia James’s 2018 campaign promise to destroy Donald Trump:......
My Take - You would
assume the union would have something to say about this, along with
a lawsuit.....or maybe a strike, and get the police to
join them. Now, that's protesting! Well, it didn't happen, and it's
clear they need new union leadership, and until then, get the members to
join together and sue both the union and the city. But due to the
backlash the Department heads decided to leave it alone. So....who are
the fascists here? RK
Thousands of police and TROOPS descend on N.Y. subway system - 'These brazen, heinous attacks will not be tolerated'
By WND Staff March 6, 2024 - The violence, the attacks, the threats to life and limb in New York
City's subway system have gotten so bad the governor is insisting that
National Guard troops be deployed to protect the innocent civilians
trying to commute to work. Just the News
is reporting that Gov. Kathy Hochul has ordered deployed 1,000 soldiers
and state police officers. They are to patrol the subway system and
check the contents of bags – all because of major crime spiking in the
system. "These brazen, heinous attacks on our subway system will not be
tolerated," she charged, citing a number of high-profile assaults. She
said the goals will be to deter crime and protect people.The bag
searches are intended to make sure weapons are not brought into the
system............
Brilliant: Let’s haul the National Guard into the New York subway
-
March 7, 2024 by Pamela Garber - “Now, finally, something is being done” is the reiterated reaction from
the thinkers on the left and, disappointingly, the thinkers on the
right. Both sides have shouted about government overreach, and now
everyone is nodding for the National Guard to police the New York City
subways.
But why not resume allowing the local police to do their job? Why not
let judges do their jobs by ending bail reform? Why does local crime
need to be outsourced to the National Guard when it had been handled
effectively at the local level in years past? Would there not be enough
officers available now?
Sometimes, seeing things framed within an analogy clarifies the true
essence of what is taking place. In this case, we need a three-pronged
analogy — the National Guard, the local police, and the local
government. The National Guard is like Amazon, the big savior who
surpasses all competition. The local police are like small businesses,
left out in the cold and replaced by Amazon. And the local government
is like a parent with Munchausen syndrome by proxy. The Munchausen
parent creates his child’s illness; fosters it; and, instead of plain
parenting, gets the Amazonesque government to take control.......
Illegal Alien Repeat Offender Accused of Attacking Multiple Women Is Back on Streets of Dysfunctional NYC
- I won't go into the "doing the same thing over and over again and
expecting different results" thing, but I will report that an illegal
alien repeat offender is back on New York City streets after spending
less than a year in jail for the latest in a series of arrests where he
was accused of attacking female hospital workers dating back to 2019.
Simple solution: The guy should not only have been deported after he
committed his first crime, but he also shouldn't have been allowed into
the country in the first place. Neither one of those preemptive actions
occurred, so let's continue. On a recent episode of Fox & Friends First,
co-host Todd Piro highlighted an example of how far NYC has fallen in
taking violent crime seriously. Piro recalled the case of Edward
Johnson, who has a history of assaulting women who work in hospitals: ......
Prominent Investor Cancels New York Plans 40 Years in the Making After Trump Ruling -By Allison Anton February 22, 2024- New York might soon have more reasons than the potential trucker boycott
to regret the recent multimillion-dollar fraud ruling against former
President Donald Trump. Last week, Judge Arthur Engoron ordered the
leading GOP presidential candidate to pay $355 million in damages for supposedly using false and inflated values for his properties on financial statements. Fox Business
reported Wednesday that the massive judgment against Trump is having
serious consequences that the Empire State seemingly never foresaw............
Hochul Says New Yorkers ‘Need a Break’ While Giving Welfare to Illegals- John Binder New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) says New
Yorkers “need a break” from illegal immigration as her administration
opens welfare to border crossers and illegal aliens arriving in the
sanctuary state.During an interview on MSNBC this week, Hochul said the arrival of
nearly 200,000 border crossers and illegal aliens to New York since the
spring of 2022 has “overwhelmed” and strained public resources,
suggesting more arrivals ought to be shut out to give New Yorkers “a
break.”..........
NY City Council Calls for Investigation into Mayor Adams’ $10K Debit Cards for Illegals - Warner Todd Huston - As the blowback continues over Democrat Mayor Eric
Adams’ plan to give illegal border crossers in city shelters pre-paid
debit cards, ostensibly to use to buy food, members of the city council
have asked for an investigation into the scheme. Adams proposed his new policy early in February, and insisted the
program that would allow illegals to feed themselves would save the
city millions of dollars in often wasted food-service costs................
New York State Sending National Guard to NYC so Commuters ‘Feel Safe’ - The state of New York is sending the National
Guard, State Police, and MTA cops into New York City subways, so
commuters “feel safe” amid a leadership failure by the mayor that has
devastated the city. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) announced Wednesday
that she would deploy state law enforcement to the Big Apple subway
network, as well as “teams of mental health workers,” to “help commuters
and visitors to the city feel safe,” according to the New York Times. The Times reports:..................
New York Doomed to Be Migrant Central -- Other Cities Take Note- Betsy McCaughey
- Mayor Eric Adams' agreement, announced Friday, to limit the time
migrants can stay in shelters at taxpayers' expense, is smoke and
mirrors. It's designed to fool you into thinking he's solving a problem
when he's actually caving to the migrant industrial complex. Adams
claims the agreement, with the Legal Aid Society and the Coalition for
the Homeless, will allow the city to evict adult migrants from city-run
shelters after 30 days, saving taxpayers money and limiting the need for
more shelters. Not true. The fine print says migrants have a shot at
staying longer if they obtain a driver's license, follow shelter rules
and show good behavior, or -- get this one -- apply for public benefits.
And this is a "non-exhaustive" list of reasons making migrants eligible
to stay longer........
Americans Are Leaving Los Angeles, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, Chicago and Philadelphia
- The Census Bureau this month released its estimates on the
populations that each American county had as of July 1, 2023. In a
release about this data, it included a table listing the 10 counties
that had the largest one-year decline in population as of that date.Los
Angeles County ranked first, as this writer reported for the Daily
Caller News Foundation. As of July 1, 2022, it had a population of
9,719,765 people. By July 1, 2023, that had dropped to 9,663,345. This
one-year decline of 56,420 was approximately twice the decline that
occurred in Kings County, New York, which ranked second. Kings County,
which is the borough of Brooklyn, saw its population drop from 2,589,531
to 2,561,225 -- a decline of 28,306.......
A
recent report from the Business Council of New York State presented a
grim economic picture for the future of the state’s finance and
insurance sectors, as high-income earners flee for more affordable
jurisdictions such as Florida and Texas. The Business Council estimated
that nearly three jobs are created in other sectors for each finance
sector employee, so the economic impact is monumental.
Other sober
realities: New York ranked 36th in the nation for economic growth, at
two-tenths of 1%; New York witnessed the highest rate of population
decline in the nation from 2019 to 2022, at 2.7% (mostly in high-earner
suburbs and the city proper); the most significant flight of income, at
$11 billion, was from Manhattan, with a net decline of $9.8 billion in
city income shifting to Florida in 2021 alone; the Big Apple boasts the
highest combined state and local income tax rate in the nation. The
state also levies an estate tax.
Progressive State Failures
It
may mystify progressives that wealthy taxpayers flee high tax
jurisdictions, but that mist will dissipate rapidly as the damage done
to America’s large liberal cities grows. California is suffering a
comparable flight of wealth, chasing away the affluent taxpayers needed
to fund ambitious social spending programs. For decades, people moved to
California as the land of opportunity; now they seek greener pastures
in Texas, Florida, and other areas where taxes and housing costs are
substantially lower. (California Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed
legislation that moves toward a massive reparations program. How many
taxpayers will flee that costly initiative?) The Golden State has killed
the golden goose, much as New York is doing.
The Public Policy
Institute of California has concluded that “the state is no longer a
significant draw for people from other states of any age, education or
income,” noting that some 220,000 people left in 2021 alone. Many of
these were high earners, which threatens the state’s economy: The top 1%
pay nearly 50% of state income taxes; the top 10% cover 80%. Government
wealth transfers through taxation prompt residents to transfer
residency ASAP. California imposes the highest state tax in the country
(13.3%), and the number one destination for departing Californians is
Texas, where state income tax is zero.
Migrant Migration
New
York and California share another unappealing feature: They embrace
citizenship for illegal immigrants and invite low-taxpaying droves to
settle in their territories. Newsom continues to pretend that the
violence, homelessness,
and poverty drowning his state are nonexistent, but New York City Mayor
Eric Adams has declared a crisis as winter approaches, claiming some
200,000 new “asylum seekers” are expected in the next few months. The
scourge of crime, panhandling, and suffering that sanctuary cities have
brought upon their taxpaying residents is leading more and more of those
who can afford it to seek asylum in states like Florida or Texas. New
York City offers free airline tickets to migrants to leave the country
and free tents on arrival. Adams claims 2,500-4,000 new migrants arrive
every week seeking political asylum.
The flocks of newcomers may
maintain New York City’s population, but they do not offset the lost
revenues of the fleeing rich taxpayers. The Big Apple has implemented
generous progressive spending in recent years, funded by new taxes on
its wealthiest denizens. Democrats claim COVID caused New Yorkers to
leave the city, but high taxes were pushing them out well before the
pandemic. The state’s efforts to chase wealthy taxpayers for revenue
after they relocated are the stuff of regulatory legend.
New York Budget Blues
It is understandable that as wealthy taxpayers exit a
jurisdiction, they take their banking and investment service businesses,
too. Some finance firms and insurers will likely relocate to other
states, to follow the monied class (their clients). New York thus stands
to lose both its tax base and its business foundation in one fell
swoop, as taxpayers and businesses seek economic breathing room in less
oppressive locales. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of homeless immigrants
are expected to land on New York streets this winter alone, while lax
(progressive) criminal policies fuel crime and inflation devour real
incomes for all New Yorkers.
To service the state’s sagging
budget, progressives will likely call for yet another millionaires’ tax.
That and increasing crime will spur more businesses and high-income
earners to exit. Like a dragon eating its tail, New York is positioned
for a vicious downward economic cycle. Progressives fiddle; Rome burns.
I realize it’s not nice to take pleasure in the misfortune of others, but that rule does not apply when bad things happen to greedy politicians.
As such, I greatly enjoy reading about when taxpayers “vote with their feet” by moving from high-tax jurisdictions to low-tax jurisdictions.
I enjoy when there is tax-motivated migration between nations.
And I enjoy when there is tax-motivated migration between states.
Regarding the latter version, there’s a must-read editorial in the Wall Street Journal about the ongoing exodus from fiscal hellholes such as Illinois, New York, and California.
The IRS each spring publishes
data on the movement of adjusted gross income (AGI) and taxpayers across
state lines from year to year. …the IRS data shows blue states are
losing taxpayers and income at an increasing clip. …a net 105,000 people
left Illinois in 2021, taking with them some $10.9 billion in AGI.
That’s up from $8.5 billion in 2020 and $6 billion in 2019.
New York’s income loss increased to $24.5 billion in 2021 from $19.5
billion in 2020 and $9 billion in 2019. California lost $29.1 billion in
2021, more than triple what it did in 2019. By contrast, the lowest tax
states added some $100 billion of income during the pandemic.
Zero-income-tax Florida gained $39.2 billion—up from $23.7 billion in
2020 and $17.7 billion in 2019. About $9.8 billion of the total arrived
from New York, $3.9 billion from Illinois, $3.7 billion from New Jersey
and $3.5 billion from California. Texas was another winner, attracting a
net $10.9 billion in 2021, which follows a gain of $6.3 billion in 2020
and $4 billion in 2019. Californians represented more than half of
Texas’s income gain in 2021.
Congratulations to Texas and Florida. Having no income tax is definitely a smart step.
Here is a chart that accompanied the editorial.
By the way, migration is the headline event, but it is also important to pay attention to who is migrating.
The WSJ‘s editorial notes that the people leaving high-tax states tend to be economically successful.
The IRS data shows that the
taxpayers leaving Illinois and New York typically made about $30,000 to
$40,000 more than those arriving. Of Illinois’s total out-migration, 28%
of the leavers made between $100,000 to $200,000 and 23% made $200,000
or more. By contrast, the average return of a Florida newcomer in 2021
was about $150,000—more than double that of taxpayers who left. High
earners spend more, which yields higher sales tax revenue. This helped
Florida post a record $22 billion budget surplus last year. California
is forecasting a $29.5 billion deficit.
