States with income taxes get the migrants. Maybe.

Washington and other non-income-tax states are slipping in the popularity polls. Get the message?

Washington and other non-income-tax states are slipping in the popularity polls. Get the message?

The Harris Poll is out with results of its annual question, asking people where (aside from their present state) they would most like to live. Washington slipped from sixth to tenth. Oregon, with all its economic woes, rose from tenth to seventh, and Colorado, strangling in its tax nooses, also rose, from fifth to fourth.

These days, all these state rankings tend to be seen through the lens of income taxes, with all the competing claims that states with income taxes euthanize their economies. Well, let's see. Two states without an income tax, Florida (from 2 to 3) and Texas (from 4 to 8) both declined, along with Washington. The risers all seem to have the magnetic appeal of an income tax.

The complete top 10 goes this way, with California at the top followed by: Hawaii, Florida, Colorado, Arizona, North Carolina, Oregon, Texas, New York, and Washington.

Moral of the story would seem to be that we should adopt I-1098, and then sit back and watch the nation flood into our fair state. Or am I missing something here?

  

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