As Americans continue relocating across state lines, California and New York remain at the center of the nation’s migration story. The latest IRS data show the top 10 counties with the largest net losses of taxpayers to other states were all located in California and New York.
Migration Patterns
Los Angeles County, home to Hollywood and one of the nation’s largest economic engines, led the nation with a net loss of 17,496 tax filers. Those departing taxpayers took nearly $1.9 billion in income with them as they moved to other states.
Economists say the migration patterns help explain broader shifts in state economies, tax bases, and housing markets as families weigh affordability, taxes, and job opportunities when considering where they want to put down roots.
Impact on State and Local Tax Collections
The movement of taxpayers and their income can also affect state and local tax collections, which help fund schools, public safety, and infrastructure.
Other major counties in California and New York saw similar outflows. The next-largest taxpayer losses were recorded in Queens County, New York (-17,109), the Bronx (-16,319), Orange County, California (-11,618), and Suffolk County, New York (-10,434).
One New York county stood out for a different reason. Manhattan gained more interstate tax filers than any other county in the nation while simultaneously losing nearly $1 billion in adjusted gross income, suggesting many of the newcomers earned less than those who left.
Heritage Foundation chief economist E.J. Antoni told Fox News Digital, ‘It’s very, very clear that people ultimately vote with their feet and when they feel like they’re getting taxed too much, they go somewhere else where they will be taxed less.’
Antoni said, ‘If you look at where these people are going, they’re not going to Massachusetts or Illinois or California. They’re going to Texas. They’re going to Tennessee. They’re going to Florida — places with low or no income taxes and low overall levels of taxation.’
Conservative strategist Paul Teller, who previously served in the Trump-Pence White House, said Americans continue leaving high-tax, highly regulated states for places where they can keep more of what they earn and face lower costs of living.
Original reporting: Fox News (HLL/CB) — read the source article.
