SmashMouth

A vote last month that makes Californians among the highest-taxed residents in the country is sparking debate about whether the Democrat-back initiative will backfire, by forcing high-earners to join a long exodus from the cash-strapped state.
Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown successfully pushed the tax increase by suggesting that high-earners must shoulder the largest burden in bailing out the state, particularly its debt-ridden public school system.
However, high unemployment and government debt have already sent residents fleeing in large numbers – an estimated 225,000 annually for the past 10 years.



And the recently passed tax increase for families making more than $250,000 each year could further shrink the tax base for California, whose 2012 budget deficit is projected to hit $28 billion.
Much of the debate has raged among California advocacy groups and in the editorial pages of the state’s biggest and most influential newspapers.
“More is never enough for these people,” Kris Vosburgh, executive director of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assoc., said about the Democrat-backed increase. “It’s hard to believe people will not leave.”
Vosburgh said his group is not an advocate for the wealthy and argued the tax increase atop other bad economic factors – including high gas and sales taxes – also have small and large businesses packing.
“With high taxes and heavy regulations, it’s just difficult to produce those widgets at a lower price than somebody in, say, Texas,” he told FoxNews.com on Tuesday.
Syndicated columnist Walter E. Williams wrote in The Orange County Register: “California politicians can fleece people in 2012, but there’s no guarantee they can do the same in 2013 and later years. People can leave.”
Ex-Californians over the past decade have already put roughly $5.67 billion into Nevada’s economy as well as $4.96 billion into Arizona and $4.07 billion in Texas, according to Manhattan Institute study titled “The Great California Exodus: A Closer Look.”
The September 2012 study -- based on data from the state and such federal agencies as the Internal Revenue Service – also argues that “chronic economic adversity,” including powerful unions, has driven away businesses.
The liberal-leaning think thank California Budget Project declined to talk about the issue but points to a study that concluded Hollywood executives, Silicon Valley entrepreneurs or other higher-earning Californians will not leave, based on the aftermath of a 2005 so-called “millionaires tax” increase.
Executive Director Chris Hoene told The Los Angeles Times that the Stanford Center of Poverty and Inequity study “dispels one of the most persistent myths about state tax policy.”
The California tax increases that passed in November, known as Proposition 30, are expected to generate at least an additional $6 billion annually – and lay claim to 2012 income.
The rate hikes range from 9.3 percent to 10.3 percent for families making $250,000 to 10.3 percent to 13.3 percent for families making at least $1 million annually.
In addition, the top state-federal tax rate for Californians in 2013 would climb to 52 percent should Washington fail to resolve the looming fiscal crisis and federal rates return to those from the Clinton-era, according to a recent study from Lynchburg College’s School of Business and Economics, which takes into account tax increases related to ObamaCare.
Among the most likely places of exile would be neighboring Nevada, which has no state income tax.
Such an idea is not that far-fetched, considering California resident and pro golfer Tiger Woods famously took his millions to Florida, another of the seven U.S. states with no state income tax.
The tax increases from Proposition 30, which also included a sales-tax hike, expire after seven years, but it might be too late.
Dan Walthers, a columnist for The Sacramento Bee, said it’s too early to tell but argued California-based Google is using an offshore address to avoid taxes on overseas income so “wouldn’t Google millionaires also avoid state taxes on themselves if they could?”


Read more: New tax increases in California stir debate about adding to exodus | Fox News

Danno

Please, I hope all the job creating entrepreneurs from the Golden State relocate, preferably to the Gulf Coast region. The South shall indeed rise again!

TheOak

I dunno Danno...... I'm sort of the mind that Californians relocating to Texas is not preferable.

While I get your point about jobs and employers.... I am reminded that Californians voted their way into where the State is....

The dirt didn't make California the way it is, the majority of the voting people did... Keep em. I'm good.

saintfan

A very liberal friend I have out here is of the same mind - that the exodus from California will eventually overtake the Conservatism in Texas. Of course, not ALL of California is uber-liberal like they are here in San Francisco. Many of these people are Moderate, and in fact there are plenty of (at least) fiscal Conservatives in Orange County. Socially liberal I will grant you, but fiscally Conservative.

This state is simply managed horribly - the result of the liberal mindset in Sacramento being uninterested in the collateral damage their policies create. THOSE people aren't leaving. It's Moderates like me who are bailing at an ever-increasing rate, and there are certainly Moderates in Texas. Look no further than Dallas.

No, I think Texas is safe, as is the rest of the country, because while these Liberal idiots out here knew precisely what they were voting for in Obama, it is my belief that much of the rest of the country simply doesn't fully understand what he's trying to do, which is, of course, to spend the country into oblivion so it can be re-made in a Socialist/Communist image.

I still have faith that, when the rubber hits the road and things truly do get out of hand, many people in this country will recognize that Obama's evil Capitalism is the thing that made this country the beacon it once was. I haven't lost faith...yet...

Oh and by the way, just as soon as the value of my home increases by about 30k I'm outta here like a shot from a gun, if you'll pardon the expression, and I'll be headed back to either Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, or Alabama.

Trust in Allah, but tie up your camel...

TheOak

Come to Texas . You'll notice I worded my reply very carefully, "majority of the voters"..... Not all Californians are the same and I recognized that. However, the majority of the voters want big government and life on the dole.

saintfan

No way to argue that.

SmashMouth

It might be worth to leave now...unless you are underwater, of course.

saintfan

Things (real estate prices I mean) are trending upward here in the Bay Area. I do worry no doubt, but I'm in a decent area and (I think) in a good price range for selling when the time comes. If Romney had won the election I'd be a LOT more confident...