Category Archives: Voting with their Feet

Voting with their…

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Feet.

Sean Hannity is off the air in Kansas City. He has been for months. The local station dropped him after his last contract expired. He was replaced with Michael Savage. I believe Savage may have two or three listeners.

Due to Hannity’s absence, you may not have heard the news. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said conservatives weren’t wanted in New York (Hannity lives on Long Island.)

Hannity soon received offers to relocate by the governors of Florida and Texas.

Sean Hannity Becomes Another High-Profile Tax Refugee

By STEPHEN MOORE AND TRAVIS BROWN, Posted 06/06/2014 06:31 PM ET

The TV host can save as much as $1 million a year just by escaping New York's tax regime.

The TV host can save as much as $1 million a year just by escaping New York’s tax regime.

Now we can add Sean Hannity to the growing list of celebrities to abandon their New York residencies in favor of states with better economic climates.

The popular TV and radio host has long been a New York resident with second and third homes in both Florida and Texas, two of the brightest stars in our nation’s economic constellation.

But on his primetime Fox News show, he recently told Florida Sen. Marco Rubio: “You’re soon going to be my senator.” He will split his time between a home in Naples, Fla., and a small ranch in Texas and end his New York residency, which means he’ll no longer be taxed by the Empire State.

Why this move after so many years as a New Yorker?

Well, in January of this year, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo created a firestorm when he contended that conservatives have “no place” in his state. In response, both Florida Gov. Rick Scott and Texas Gov. Rick Perry invited Hannity to consider a move to their states — invitations Hannity has gladly accepted.

It’s quite obvious why Hannity would not want to live in a state where his party is vilified by the governor. Yet there are many compelling financial reasons that favor Florida and Texas.

For one, neither Florida nor Texas levies a personal income tax — quite appealing considering that New York’s marginal income-tax rate for top earners like Hannity is over 13%. For New Yorkers making over $1 million a year, a move to Florida and Texas will let these top earners take home at least $130,000 more after taxes.

Hannity no doubt pulls down an income that will save as much as $1 million a year by saying so long to New York.

He isn’t alone in choosing sunny economic climates over New York’s shakedown tax system. Between 1992 and 2011 (according to data from the Internal Revenue Service), New York lost $71.36 billion in net adjusted gross income (AGI). By comparison, Texas gained $27.34 billion, while Florida gained a whopping $100.53 billion.

With population growth outpacing New York’s nearly 3-to-1, Florida has now passed the Empire State as the nation’s third-most populous.

The annual state report by the nonpartisan Tax Foundation confirms that Hannity is making a wise financial decision. Its 2014 State Business Tax Climate Index places New York dead last on the list as a result of high income, corporate, sales and property taxes.

The article continues onto a second page, here.

Hannity’s operation pays a significant amount of taxes to New York and well as to the local government. Now Cuomo’s bombast has lost the state and Long Island. Hannity could save as much as $130,000 a year by some estimates. A drop in the bucket, perhaps, for New York—if Hannity’s decision was the only one involved. However, it isn’t. Hannity isn’t along leaving New York. Rush Limbaugh moved out several years ago after a series of harassing tax audits that netted New York nothing.

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Photo-ID. Last Tuesday was the primary election in Mississippi. The media was focused on the race between Chris McDaniel and Thad Cochran. They conveniently overlooked another significant event in the election—the requirement for a photo-ID to vote.

The Biggest Non-Story in Tuesday’s Elections? Mississippi Voter ID Implemented With No Problems

Hans von Spakovsky / / Jameson Broggi /

It wasn’t the biggest story following Tuesday’s elections in various states, but it was the biggest and most-ignored non-story.

Mississippi’s new voter ID law got its first run in the June 3 primary, and the sky did not fall. Despite the tiresome and disproven claims by opponents that such laws cause wholesale voter disenfranchisement and are intended to suppress votes, Mississippi “sailed through” its first test of the new ID requirements, according to The Clarion Ledger, the newspaper of Jackson, Miss.

Aside from being able to use any form of government-issued photo ID, like every other state with ID requirements, Mississippi provides a free ID for anyone who does not already have a government-issued photo ID.  Contrary to the claims of those who say large numbers of Americans don’t have an ID, Mississippi estimated that only 0.8 percent of Mississippians lacked an ID.  In fact, even that may have been an overestimate since the state had to issue only about 1,000 voter ID cards. All those who forgot their ID on Tuesday also could vote by an affidavit as long as they returned and showed an ID within five days.

The Clarion Ledger reported how few problems there were in the implementation of the new requirement. Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann said the state “devoted countless hours of time and training to election officials across the state” and the result was that there were hardly any complaints. There was only one reported case of a man mistakenly being turned away for lack of an ID, at which point an election commissioner was sent to solve the problem. But this was one of the few reported problems across the entire state in which almost 400,000 voters turned out to cast their ballots in the primary elections, including in the fiercely contested Republican U.S. Senate primary where incumbent Thad Cochran faced off against challenger Chris McDaniel in a razor-thin election.

As Sid Salter from the Clarion Ledger put it, the voter ID law was a “non-event” and “voters expressed little, if any, inconvenience at the polls due to the new law.” So how is the new law being covered by the media? Instead of reporting that the voter ID law is “sailing through,” the mainstream media has instead elected to remain silent. As Hosemann said, “No news is good news.”

An interview of Sharyl Atkission, formerly of CNN and under attack by Media Matters, slams the current crop of journalists as being tools, easily manipulated by Obama and the liberal establishment. Atkission left CBS because of the restrictions by CBS on her reporting. She was immediately attacked by CBS and Media Matters for her claims of liberal bias in the news.

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Friday Follies or Outrage of the Month?

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Usually, on Fridays, I choose a number of topics to discuss. This Friday is no exception. We have examples of betrayal, constitutional violations, political lies at all levels, a nation stumbling into chaos, a chaos created, abetted and supported by liberal politics and agendas.

Let’s discuss betrayal. John Boehner has ruled that the House will not oppose Obamacare and will kowtow to democrats when the next Continuing Resolution arrives in a couple of months. Why is this democrat operative still Speaker of the House? He should be removed. Immediately.

Boehner cares not about the welfare of the country. His primary interest is supporting the Ruling Class, to remain a Washington insider. The only way to accomplish that goal is to rollover for every democrat initiative that arrives in Congress. How does he remain in Congress? He’s in a safe, democrat, district. It’s the democrats and the RINO local central committees that keep him in office.

Conservatives are planning on a primary opponent against Boehner but they’ll have to fight both the Ohio ‘Pubs as well as cross-over democrats. Whomever is Boehner’s primary opponent, I’ll send him, or her, a few bucks.

GOP Leadership Plan for CR/Obamacare: Meekness or Malice

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  August 22nd, 2013 at 08:52 PM  |

At some point, rank-and-file conservative activists will have to confront an inconvenient reality.  The Republicans in Washington are not just dumb or spineless – they are the problem.  They don’t share our values and seek to undermine our beliefs.  The only way that will change is if we return the favor and thwart their political careers.

Earlier this evening, Speaker John Boehner announced his grand plans for fighting Obamacare in the budget.  He will pass a short-term continuing resolution (CR) until some time in December, grouping the new budget deadline with the debt ceiling date, and create another grand end-of-year fiscal cliff.  He will fund Obamacare in the short term CR, but by George, he will fight like hell in the debt ceiling battle!  For now, they will make the short term CR about locking in the sequester cuts.

Here are some points to ponder:

  • I don’t think Charlie Brown would have attempted to kick the football so many times.  Let’s review the past three years.  In January 2011, Republicans pledged to defund Obamacare in the FY 2011 CR and cut of $100 billion in spending.  They lied.  Ultimately, they only cut $352 million and funded Obamacare. They promised to fight on the next debt ceiling battle and cut trillions.  They caved on August 1, 2011 for the McConnell debt increase, and handed Obama a free $2.4 trillion debt ceiling ticket to take him past the election.  The only thing we got in return was the sequester, which prioritized military cuts over everything else.

We were then promised that the real show would begin in September when they fight for the new Ryan budget for FY 2012.  They punted until the end of the year, ultimately passing a massive omnibus bill, which funded Obamacare, vitiated the Ryan budget, and violated every tenet of the GOP Pledge to America.  In 2012, they caved on funding Obamacare in the FY 2013 CR, punting it to March 2013 under the pretense that we would win the election and have even more leverage.  Then they caved on the McConnell tax increases at year’s end, noting that the default position was against us.  But, the contended, wait until the debt ceiling when the default position is no debt limit increase, and we will have more leverage.

That sentiment changed quickly when leadership brought down a number of phony pollsters to the annual retreat at Williamsburg, warning members of Armageddon if they fight on the debt ceiling.  So they cleverly “suspended” the debt ceiling at the end of January, promising to first fight on the CR in March, and locking the sequester and pass a better budget that would balance in ten years.  Then, they would head into the next debt ceiling fight unified behind that path to balance, which defunded Obamacare.

A number of conservatives signed onto the “Williamsburg Accord” with the promise of a better budget than the previous year.  Leadership rearranged the deck and used the fiscal cliff and Obamacare tax increases, along with new unrealistic CBO projections of revenue to repackage the exact same budget from the previous year.  Conservatives had voted for Obamacare all for a false promise and the sequester cuts that were already locked in by default.

Now they are, once again, punting on the CR for the debt ceiling!!!

  • Anyone who believes these people when they say they are scared to fight on the CR but will fight on the debt ceiling is not playing with a full deck.  According to the establishment, the debt ceiling is even more radioactive, as it raises the specter of a default, not just funding for government.

  • We know that deep down they believe Obamacare is here to stay.  So why not man up and publicly proclaim that belief?

  • Punting the Obamacare fight will free up September to pass amnesty.  Why bother with the nuisance of Obamacare three weeks before implementation when they can score points for Obama?

  • Back in January, they suspended the debt ceiling so that the CR and debt ceiling would not be grouped together, and we could fight each one individually.  Or so we were told.  Now they are punting the CR so it will coincide with the debt ceiling.  What gives?  Perhaps, they want to force one big grand deal with a bunch of shiny objects so the base only gets betrayed once, instead of betraying them now and then incurring their wrath in December.

  • Once again, the sequester is the shiny object.  But didn’t we already lock in the sequester in March?  Wasn’t that already used to sugar-coat the bitter pill of funding Obamacare in March?  Why recycle it?  Are we going to put a double lock in it?

  • If Republicans are not willing to even engage in brinkmanship, and clearly telegraph the message to Dems that they are terrified of brinkmanship – to the extent that they are willing to engage in a civil war with the base – why will Democrats ever feel the need to acquiesce even to leadership’s watered-down requests?  They will just sit there and wait them out, knowing that Republicans will always blink first, even over something like Obamacare, which is an albatross for Dems headed into an election year fought largely on red states.

  • And where is Mitch McConnell?  In the witness protection program?

Red State can get a bit raw at times. In this case, however, they are right on target.

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The “blue” states, those bastions of the democrat party and their liberal, tax, tax, tax, spend, spend, spend agenda is losing money and population. People are voting with their feet and it that can’t be done, they’re sending their money out of state to locales where they won’t be constantly robbed by state governments.

Map: The mass exodus of taxpayers from New York, California

Aug. 22, 2013 11:22am

New York and California may be the worst tax offenders, but Michigan, Illinois and Ohio aren’t far behind:

Tax_Foundation_MapA new report from the national Tax Foundation examines the exodus of taxpayers from these states… as well as the transfer of these tax dollars to states like Texas, Arizona and Florida:

This week, our Monday Map draws data from our interactive State Migration Calculator, and illustrates the interstate movement of income over the past decade (from 2000 to 2010). When a person moves to a new state, their income is added to the total of all other incomes in that state. This positively affects the total taxable income in his or her new state, and negatively affects the income in the state he or she left. […]

Florida benefited the most—interstate migrants brought a net $67.3 billion dollars in annual income into the state between 2000 and 2010. The next two highest gainers were Arizona ($17.7 billion) and Texas ($17.6 billion). New York, on the other hand, lost the most income ($-45.6 billion), and is followed by California ($-29.4 billion) and Illinois ($-20.4 billion).

Note, too, that Missouri, like those Blue States, is in the negative category (light purple) instead of gaining income and population.

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The libs crow about Separation of Church and State, ignoring that no such provision exists in the Constitution. That said, there is a TON of case law that supports the concept. What IS in the Constitution is the prohibition of the federal government or “prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” There is, too, case law that extends that federal prohibition to the states…except New Mexico’s Supreme Court appears to be ignorant of that prohibition.

August 22, 2013 at 6:44 pm

Earlier today, the Supreme Court of New Mexico ruled that the First Amendment does not protect a Christian photographer’s ability to decline to take pictures of a same-sex commitment ceremony—even when doing so would violate the photographer’s deeply held religious beliefs. As Elaine Huguenin, owner of Elane Photography, explained: “The message a same-sex commitment ceremony communicates is not one I believe.”

But New Mexico’s highest court, deciding an appeal of the case, today agreed with the New Mexico Human Rights Commission and ruled against Elane Photography, concluding that neither protections of free speech nor free exercise of religion apply.

Elaine and her husband Jon, both committed Christians, run their small photography business in Albuquerque, N.M. In 2006, she declined the request to photograph a same-sex commitment ceremony. In 2008, the New Mexico Human Rights Commission ruled that by declining to use its artistic and expressive skills to communicate what was said and what occurred at the ceremony, the business had engaged in illegal discrimination based on sexual orientation.

The commission ruled this way based on New Mexico’s human rights law, which prohibits discrimination in public accommodations (“any establishment that provides or offers its services … or goods to the public”) based on race, religion and sexual orientation—among other protected classes.

Elane Photography didn’t refuse to take pictures of gays and lesbians, but only of such a same-sex ceremony, based on the owners’ belief that marriage is a union of a man and a woman. New Mexico law agrees, as it has no legal same-sex civil unions or same-sex marriages. Additionally, there were other photographers in the Albuquerque area who could have photographed the ceremony.

Groups supporting Elane Photography filed friend-of-the-court briefs. The Cato Institute argued that, under the First Amendment, photographers have freedom of speech protections against government-compelled artistic expressions. The Becket Fund argued that New Mexico’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act protects the “free exercise” of Elane Photography. The Alliance Defending Freedom—the lawyers defending Elane Photography—also argued that the First Amendment’s free exercise clause protects their client.

Today’s decision highlights the increasing concern many have that anti-discrimination laws and same-sex marriage run roughshod over the rights of conscience and religious liberty. Thomas Messner, a visiting fellow at The Heritage Foundation, has documented multiple instances in which laws forbidding discrimination based on sexual orientation, as well as laws redefining marriage, already have eroded religious liberty and the rights of conscience. Indeed, earlier this year, the United States Commission on Civil Rights held an entire hearing on conflicts between nondiscrimination policies and civil liberties such as religious freedom.

In a growing number of incidents, government hasn’t respected the beliefs of Americans. Citizens must insist that government not discriminate against those who hold to the historic definition of marriage. Policy should prohibit the government—or anyone who receives taxpayers’ dollars—from discriminating in employment, licensing, accreditation or contracting against those who believe marriage is the union of a man and a woman.

So much for religious freedom in the United States. You only have the freedom that government says you have.

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Kansas City is #26

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An article appeared today listing 19 cities with a greater number of public employee to resident ration than Detroit. Detroit’s statistics are:

DETROIT

Residents per employee 61
Population: 713,777
Employees: 11,645
Annual payroll: $651,437,244
Average compensation: $55,941
What’s not included?

Number 1 on that list is, not surprisingly, Washington, DC.

WASHINGTON DC

Residents per employee 25
Population: 601,723
Employees: 23,631
Annual payroll: $3,477,829,176
Average compensation: $147,172
What’s not included?

What isn’t shown in these demographics is the income to debt ratios. We know that Detroit’s ratio was negative…more debt than income. Decades of deficit spending came home, finally, to roost.

Detroit has been ruled by democrats since 1962. Louis Miriani Mayor of Detroit.jpg Louis Miriani, a republican, was Mayor at that time. Being a ‘pub didn’t excuse him from being corrupt. In 1969, he was convicted of federal tax evasion and served approximately 10 months in prison.[96]

The city really didn’t go downhill until the election of Coleman Young. Young was elected in the aftermath of the 1967 riots and the resulting “white flight“ from Detroit. Coleman blamed his predecessors and called them an “occupation army.” Young used the falling economy of Detroit to build his power base. It was  the beginning of the end for Detroit.

You can find the list of failing cities via this link. Kansas City isn’t in the top 19 but at #26, it’s close.

KANSAS CITY

Residents per employee 69
Population: 459,787
Employees: 6,646
Annual payroll: $357,365,988
Average compensation: $53,771
What’s not included?

Kansas CIty, like Detroit, has been suffering under decades of democrat rule who, like all democrat pols, blame everyone else for their failings while ignoring the very visible fact that it is their policies and actions that was the root cause of their continuing failure. That is also true of other major cities across the US.

Mrs. Crucis and I are fortunate we moved from Kansas City and Jackson County nearly two decades ago. Kansas City’s finances are as shaky as is Detroit. The city’s allegiance to unions and their opposition to Right to Work result in more and more businesses and industries moving across the state line into Kansas, a Right to Work state.

The real tragedy is that Kansas City and Jackson County (MO) residents have swallowed the democrat line, hook, line and sinker. They ignore the warnings, if they see them at all. The Kansas City ‘Red’ Star certainly won’t report the coming danger. No, they are part of the problem—becoming the democrat’s propaganda organ for Kansas City.

The best we can do, to lessen the impact of Kansas City’s coming failure, is to isolate the consequences to Kansas City and Jackson County. When Kansas City and Jackson County inevitably arrive at Jefferson City with their hands out, we, the citizens of Missouri, our Legislature and Governor, must be ready to say, “No!”

Kansas City, like all the democrat ruled cities,  has created their problems. It must be up to Kansas City, and those other cities in similar circumstances, to get themselves out or their predicament. The day of cities sucking off the rest of their state is over.

Oh, by the way, St. Louis is in that list at #11…higher than Detroit!

ST LOUIS

Residents per employee 50
Population: 319,294
Employees: 6,335
Annual payroll: $600,533,640
Average compensation: $94,796
What’s not included?

 

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Refugees

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When the going gets rough, those who can, vote with their feet.  There have been two such instances in the new this week. French actor Gerard Dépardieu has taken residence just across the French border in Belgium. The French Prime Minister is upset.

France’s Jean-Marc Ayrault slams flight of the ‘greedy rich’

France’s prime minister has slammed wealthy citizens fleeing the country’s punitive tax on high incomes as greedy profiteers seeking to “become even richer”.

By Henry Samuel, Paris, 7:08PM GMT 11 Dec 2012

Jean-Marc Ayrault’s outburst came after France’s best-known actor, Gerard Dépardieu, took up legal residence in a small village just over the border in Belgium, alongside hundreds of other wealthy French nationals seeking lower taxes.

“Those who are seeking exile abroad are not those who are scared of becoming poor,” the prime minister declared after unveiling sweeping anti-poverty measures to help those hit by the economic crisis.

They are also leaving the UK whose government has been steady raising taxes over several years. The UK, until recently, had one of the highest overall tax rates in the EU.

Singer James Blunt plans to become Swiss

By Allan Hall, PUBLISHED: 08:42 EST, 11 December 2012 | UPDATED: 10:57 EST, 11 December 2012

British singer James Blunt has said he wants to become a Swiss citizen after living in the tax-friendly country for the past five years.

‘As soon as the authorities will let me, because I don’t know if I’ve been here a sufficiently long time, I would like to become Swiss,’ he told a Swiss newspaper at the weekend.

‘Verbier is my home,’ said the 38-year-old multi-millionaire, who bought a chalet in the ski resort in 2005.

It makes you wonder how soon we will see Americans adopting this practice to escape taxes in the US? There aren’t all that many places non-Billionaires can go. Switzerland has strict requirements for citizenship. Belgium isn’t all that much better than the rest of the EU, if at all. Americans really only have other states—like Texas or perhaps Arizona as a refuge.

We have all read about the money flight from Maryland and New York. Is California next? Where would these California entrepreneurs go? Perhaps Michigan, now that the state has joined the other 23 states with Right-to-Work. The unions, as expected after Michigan Governor Rick Snyder signed the legislation, acted like thugs and rioted; assaulting counter-protesters and the media who filmed the attacks.

The public unions have helped destroy Detroit. The city looks like East Berlin a few years after the end of World War Two. The UAW destroyed the auto industry (except Ford who DIDN’T accept Obama’s bailout,) taking control of GM and driving that company further into the dirt. Chrysler, as an American company no longer exists. Obama and the unions forced its sale to Fiat and now is selling Italian clown cars at many of its dealerships.

If Michigan can get the state’s spending and other taxes under control, perhaps they, too, can become an oasis for entrepreneurs like Texas and the other Right-to-Work states?

Like maybe Missouri now that we have a veto proof state legislature? Let’s make Missouri the 25th state to pass Right-to-Work and escape the restraints of union controlled labor.  Let’s make Missouri a refugee haven and grow our economy like Texas and the other 24 union free states. It a concept whose time has come.

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Tuesday’s Notes

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Robert A. Heinlein created a science-fiction universe for many of his books. In that universe we would be in the middle of what he called, “The Crazy Years.” We have some fine examples of that just scanning today’s news items.

High school band marches with hammer & sickle

Posted: Sep 25, 2012 8:01 AM CDT Updated: Sep 25, 2012 10:03 AM CDT
By FOX News, By Todd Starnes

newoxfordbands.com / FOX NewsA Pennsylvania high school marching band is raising eyebrows with a halftime performance that commemorates the Russian revolution, complete with red flags, olive military-style uniforms, and giant hammers and sickles.

“St. Petersburg: 1917” is the theme for the New Oxford High School Marching Band. Ironically, the school’s athletic teams are called the Colonials and their colors are red, white and blue. The band’s website features a picture of the group with students holding a hammer and sickle.

“There is no reason for Americans to celebrate the Russian revolution,” said one irate parent who alerted Fox News. “I am sure the millions who died under Communism would not see the joy of celebrating the Russian revolution by a school 10 miles from Gettysburg.”

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How is this for a surprise? Romney pulls in more campaign donations in HOLLYWOOD than Obama does in New York City aided by Beyonce.

Romney Eyes Hollywood Return After Successful Weekend Fundraiser

By DOMINIC PATTEN | Monday September 24, 2012 @ 11:06am PDT

Turns out Mitt Romney is a big fan of Hollywood. After pulling in $6 million in a fundraiser Saturday at the Beverly Hilton, the GOP candidate could be back in town soon. “This weekend’s event was very successful and there are plans to try to get the Governor back in Los Angeles again after the first or second debate for a similar occasion,” a source close to the Romney campaign.

…

The event pulled in about $2 million more than what President Obama raised at his most recent celebrity-hosted event last week in NYC with Beyoncé and Jay-Z.

And Obama is doing soooo good? All the while Romney gathers more money than Obama in Beverly Hills? Who’da thunk it!?

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The more California taxes and spends, the more the state goes into debt like a 3rd world despot, people are voting—with their feet.

The Great California Exodus: A Closer Look

Tom Gray & Robert Scardamalia

For decades after World War II, California was a destination for Americans in search of a better life. In many people’s minds, it was the state with more jobs, more space, more sunlight, and more opportunity. They voted with their feet, and California grew spectacularly (its population increased by 137 percent between 1960 and 2010). However, this golden age of migration into the state is over. For the past two decades, California has been sending more people to other American states than it receives from them. Since 1990, the state has lost nearly 3.4 million residents through this migration.

This study describes the great ongoing California exodus, using data from the Census, the Internal Revenue Service, the state’s Department of Finance, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, and other sources. We map in detail where in California the migrants come from, and where they go when they leave the state. We then analyze the data to determine the likely causes of California’s decline and the lessons that its decline holds for other states.

The data show a pattern of movement over the past decade from California mainly to states in the western and southern U.S.: Texas, Nevada, and Arizona, in that order, are the top magnet states. Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Idaho, and Utah follow. Rounding out the top ten are two southern states: Georgia and South Carolina.

A finer-grained regional analysis reveals that the main current of migration out of California in the past decade has flowed eastward across the Colorado River, reversing the storied passages of the Dust Bowl era. Southern California had about 55 percent of the state’s population in 2000 but accounted for about 65 percent of the net out-migration in the decade that followed. More than 70 percent of the state’s net migration to Texas came from California’s south.

What has caused California’s transformation from a “pull in” to a “push out” state? The data have revealed several crucial drivers. One is chronic economic adversity (in most years, California unemployment is above the national average). Another is density: the Los Angeles and Orange County region now has a population density of 6,999.3 per square mile—well ahead of New York or Chicago. Dense coastal areas are a source of internal migration, as people seek more space in California’s interior, as well as migration to other states. A third factor is state and local governments’ constant fiscal instability, which sends at least two discouraging messages to businesses and individuals. One is that they cannot count on state and local governments to provide essential services—much less, tax breaks or other incentives. Second, chronically out-of-balance budgets can be seen as tax hikes waiting to happen.

The data also reveal the motives that drive individuals and businesses to leave California. One of these, of course, is work. States with low unemployment rates, such as Texas, are drawing people from California, whose rate is above the national average. Taxation also appears to be a factor, especially as it contributes to the business climate and, in turn, jobs. Most of the destination states favored by Californians have lower taxes. States that have gained the most at California’s expense are rated as having better business climates. The data suggest that many cost drivers—taxes, regulations, the high price of housing and commercial real estate, costly electricity, union power, and high labor costs—are prompting businesses to locate outside California, thus helping to drive the exodus.

There is much more data at the website. I suggest you read the entire article and consider how you and your home state can take advantage of California’s folly and idiocy.

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Random Points

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Today is a historic day.  It’s been 43 years since Teddy Kennedy swam off abandoning Mary Jo Kopechne and leaving her to drown.

1969: After a party on Chappaquiddick Island, Senator Ted Kennedy drives off a wooden bridge into a tide-swept pond and his passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne, dies.

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It’s the Primary season here in Missouri.  The primary will arrive on August 7th, less than a month away.  Here in Cass County ‘Pub yard signs are sprouting like mushrooms — or toadstools if you’re a democrat.  If you’ve been observant, you won’t see many, if any, democrat signs.  Why? Because they have tightly controlled their members to insure there is no primary opposition.  Like a swarm of lemmings, the dems are in lockstep with their party.  That right there says a lot about them.  Mindless robots operating according to their party’s programming.

The following article is for the ‘Pub winners. I know the dems won’t read it. They’ll follow orders blindly. At least the ‘Pubs show more independence…usually.

Keeping Taxes Low At State Level Is Key To Growth

By REX SINQUEFIELD AND TRAVIS H. BROWN

 Posted 07/17/2012 05:45 PM ET

State taxes impact economic performance more than most people imagine. While the majority of attention is paid to the federal tax code, the evidence suggests that state taxes are just as important in determining economic competitiveness and often mean the difference between economic success and failure.

The level and form of state taxation varies greatly, from no-income-tax states such as Florida and Texas to states like Hawaii and Oregon, which have the highest personal income tax rates in the nation (11%).

Similarly, economic performance over the last decade has varied dramatically among the 50 states, with Illinois, California and New York performing very poorly, while Texas flourishes. Differences in state tax policies help explain this record.

The U.S. economy, in the words of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, is heading for a massive tax cliff. The expiration of the 2001-2003 tax cuts, the expiration of the payroll tax cut and new taxes enacted as part of ObamaCare will completely upend the existing federal tax code.

Given this state of affairs and the political gridlock in Washington, D.C., the best one can hope for is the extension of some of the existing tax rates and the avoidance of a disastrous, massive tax increase in January 2013.

The chances for substantive tax reform that would make the U.S. more competitive are slim, given the administration’s preoccupation with tax “fairness” and demonizing the rich. On the other hand, state taxes are ripe for reform, and many governors around the country are leading the charge to reduce or do away with their state income taxes all together.

Tax reforms happening at the state level are much more likely to succeed than anything coming out of Washington D.C., and the evidence shows that cutting state personal income taxes can have a dramatic impact on economic performance. State tax reform is, therefore, the best chance to improve the competitiveness of the United States in this global race for jobs and prosperity.

If you have read any of my writings, you know that I am not a fan of replacing the income tax with a sales tax.  After conversations with a number of folks, I’m modifying my view…somewhat: I am not supporting replacing the income tax with a sales tax—at the federal level.

We don’t have the conservative strength to implement the concept at the federal level. What we will have is both a national sales tax—morphing into a VAT tax the next time the libs gain control of Congress—as well as an income tax.  However, I now believe the concept, replacing the income tax with a sales tax, can be done correctly at the state level.

There is ample evidence of the impact that state income taxes have on economic performance. Taxpayer data from the IRS Division of Statistics shows that during the last 15 years, Texas and Florida have gained $20.7 billion and $84.3 billion in annual adjusted gross income (AGI) due to migration, respectively. During the same time period, New York, California and Illinois have lost $58.6 billion, $32 billion and $26.3 billion of annual AGI, respectively.

Nine states today do not levy a broad personal income tax, while two of those nine tax only dividends and interest. Altogether, the nine states without a personal income tax have gained $146 billion in annual AGI, while the nine states with the highest income taxes have lost $124 billion. This translates to $26.7 million gained per day for the no income tax states, and $22.6 million lost per day for the highest tax states.

Critics claim that migration has nothing to do with taxes, that it occurs for other reasons such as climate or “long established migration patterns.” Yet great weather hasn’t helped Hawaii, which has lost almost $300 million in AGI over the last 15 years. Similarly, if “migration patterns” are responsible, why is Nevada, which has no income tax, gaining wealth, while its neighbor California, which has some of the highest taxes, losing wealth?

The correlation between wealth migration and tax policy can even be seen in the Dakotas, with North Dakota (which has an income tax) consistently losing wealth to South Dakota (which does not impose a state income tax). The differences in economic performance between the states are profound and cannot be explained by anecdotes. — Investor’s Business Daily.

For those of you unfamiliar with wealth migration, it’s more popularly known as “voting with their feet.” One of my continuing concerns about any sales tax is that it taxes behavior and consumption.  Like anything being taxed, when you tax something, you get less of it. 

That is true with consumption taxes as well. A decade or so ago, the feds decided to tax “luxury” items. Items like personal aircraft, yachts and other items.  The Law of Unintended Consequences kicked in.  The Yacht industry was destroyed. At my last look, there are still no US owned yacht builders in the US. Most went out of business or moved off-shore. (Thank you, democrats.)

The private aircraft industry fared little better. Historic aircraft companies like Cessna, Piper, Beechcraft filed for bankruptcy. None of them are now US owned.  In fact Beechcraft, now known as Hawker-Beechcraft, was just sold to a Chinese company. It is a lesson to be remembered. Taxing consumption kills businesses.

Wealth lost by a state is wealth lost forever. Individuals pay not only state income taxes, but also sales taxes, property taxes and various other government fees. When taxpayers leave, they take with them not only this year’s income but also the present value of all future income and taxes, not to mention the impact that their consumer spending would have on the local economy.

Similarly, when businesses decide to leave, they take jobs with them. Over the last 15 years, New York State lost $58.6 billion in annual AGI. When using a 5% discount rate, the present value of this lost income is over $1.1 trillion, while New York City’s entire operating budget in 2011 was only $65.8 billion, according to its budget office.

While in any given year the gains or losses due to taxpayer migration may seem small, this impact becomes huge when compounded over time.

There are lessons to be learned here that our state representatives and senators should—must understand. Per capita spending in Missouri is surprisingly high. Higher than all our neighbors, even Illinois. We’re fortunate that the port fees on our rivers provide a significant portion of our state revenues. That can change quickly, however, if we, as a state, aren’t observant and proactive to preserve our non-tax sources of income.

I urge you to read the entire article. There’s much more than I’ve quoted here. It is an education.

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Tuesday’s Thoughts

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VEEP Joe Biden was in town yesterday for a fundraiser for Claire “Mommy-mouth” McCaskill.  Only the party elites were invited. It was a closed, private session. No one from the public was wanted.  Why, they may ask some embarrassing questions like, “If you are against Obamacare as you now claim, why did you vote for it?”  Can’t have that!

The only public notice so far is the disruption of traffic as Biden’s entourage wanders around town. It must keep the KCPD on their toes blocking traffic everytime Biden turns left when he should have turned right.

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Like New York, Illinois and California, Maryland increased taxes on the “rich.” Guess what?  Maryland lost population since those tax increases were enacted and actually lost revenue.

Published: Monday, 9 Jul 2012 | 11:52 AM ET

A new report says wealthy Maryland residents may be moving out due to recent tax hikes – a finding that is sure to escalate the battle over taxing the American rich.The study, by the anti-tax group Change Maryland, says that a net 31,000 residents left the state between 2007 and 2010, the tenure of a “millionaire’s tax” pushed through by Gov. Martin O’Malley. The tax, which expired in 2010, in imposed a rate of 6.25 percent on incomes of more than $1 million a year.

The Change Maryland study found that the tax cost Maryland $1.7 billion in lost tax revenues.  A county-by-county analysis by Change Maryland also found that the state’s wealthiest counties also had some of the largest population outflows.

In total, Maryland has added 24 new taxes or fees in recent years, Change Maryland says. Florida, which has no income-tax, has been a large recipient of Maryland’s exiled wealthy.

That’s known as voting with their feet. It takes a particular style of stupidity to believe folks will just stand there and accept more taxes when they can do something about it.

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I saw a column today that rang bells in my mind.  I just don’t believe the story as written. Something has been misreported, misunderstood or somebody’s lying.

The story goes like this. A woman approached an off-duty police office from the rear, hugged him and “the gun just went off all by itself!”  The woman was shot through the lung and heart and died at a local hospital.

Let me list the things in this story that I question.

  1. Guns just don’t fire all by themselves.  The trigger must be pulled. Question #1 is how did the trigger get pulled?
  2. According the to story, the pistol was in a holster. Modern holsters are designed to cover the trigger and trigger guard to prevent the trigger from being pulled or from being snagged — while in the holster. Since the woman hugged the cop’s back, the muzzle of the pistol had to be horizontal and to the rear. That implies the pistol was in a shoulder holster. Every shoulder holster I’ve seen covers the trigger. Question #2 is how did the trigger get pulled?
  3. The wound included the lung and heart. If you look at an anatomical chart of the human body you’ll notice that to shoot someone in the lung and heart, the bullet must pass through the body from an angle or from the side. It unlikely a bullet passing from front to the rear would hit both the heart and lung. If the woman hugged the cop’s back and the gun went off, the bullet should have grazed her ribs.  Or, she hugged him from the side. Again, the story has some holes.

Of course we must remember, this happened in Detroit.

There are so many facts in this story that just doesn’t ring true. I suspect someone was playing with the gun — fast draw maybe — and the trigger was pulled.That happened here in KC, in the KCPD police locker room some years ago.  No one was hit in that instance as I remember.

Here is the story as it was reported by the AP.

Police: Hug triggers officer’s gun, kills woman

Jul 8, 11:28 PM (ET)

DETROIT (AP) – A woman celebrating the weekend before her 25th birthday was fatally shot Sunday when she hugged an off-duty police officer while dancing at a party, causing the officer’s service weapon to fire, according to police and her mother.

Adaisha Miller would have turned 25 on Monday, according to her mother, Yolanda McNair.

The shooting happened at an outdoor social gathering about 12:30 a.m., said police Sgt. Eren Stephens. It happened on the city’s west side.

According to Stephens, the woman “embraced the officer from behind, causing the holstered weapon to accidently discharge.” The bullet punctured Miller’s lung and hit her heart, and she died at a hospital.

Stephens said the Detroit officer will remain on administrative duties while authorities investigate the shooting and report their findings to the Wayne County prosecutor. The officer’s name was not released.

It appears to me this story was written to enhance the myth that guns, all weapons for that matter, are sentient and evil. Guns just wait for an opportunity to go off “all by themselves” and kill someone.

Yep, that sounds like the AP. Perpetuating the myth.

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