A worker prices produce at a grocery store in San Francisco, June 7. | Photo: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg News
The latest IRS data shows that the migration of taxpayers to GOP-run states from the left coasts and Illinois continued in 2022.
By The Editorial Board | Wall Street Journal
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.
The IRS last week published its annual data on the migration of taxpayers and adjusted gross income (AGI) between states. 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).
Although higher interest rates and housing prices reduced mobility in 2022, 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, largely owing to fewer New Yorkers moving across the Hudson River.
Fewer taxpayers left the Empire State in 2022 than during the pandemic, but its income loss was still about 50% higher (unadjusted for inflation) than in 2019. According to an analysis by Wirepoints, New York lost 1.8% in AGI from out-migration in 2022, 3.1% in 2021 and 2.5% in 2020. That’s a lot of taxable income.
On the other hand, Florida gained about twice as much income in 2022 from other states as it did in 2019, while Texas’s income haul surged by more than 150%. Other Republican-led states such as South Carolina and Tennessee also continued to draw more income from other states than before the pandemic, even after adjusting for inflation.
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