Over-Taxed New Yorkers Are Fleeing To GOP Governor Charlie Baker’s Pro-Growth Massachusetts

As GOP Governor Charlie Baker’s reforms continue to strengthen the Massachusetts economy, failed Democrat policies in New York are causing its residents to pack their bags and leave for greener pastures. In a new column published by Reason Magazine, Ira Stoll contrasts Governor Baker’s commitment to fiscally conservative policies that promote prosperity with Democrat Governor Andrew Cuomo’s burdensome, tax-hiking agenda that is causing New York to lose residents and investments to Baker’s Massachusetts.

Stoll writes that “as more and more New Yorkers move to Massachusetts, the Bay State may get even denser and the Empire State even emptier. What is true for countries is also true for states: a measure of success is when people are trying to get in rather than to get out.”

Ira Stoll writes for Reason Magazine:

“If the flow of businesses and residents has tended in the direction of Massachusetts in recent years, it is the result of a policy experiment. Massachusetts has a flat state tax of 5.1% on all income, while New York has a graduated state income tax that tops out at 8.82%. Add in the 3.876% New York City income tax rate, and high-earning New York City residents pay an income tax rate more than double what Boston residents do.

Since Republican Governor George Pataki left office in 2006, New York has elected a series of Democratic governors who have done little to make the state more competitive. In Massachusetts, meanwhile, Republican Governor Charlie Baker, elected in 2014, has followed in the Weld-Romney-Pataki tradition, surviving in a liberal-tending state by blending fiscal conservatism with environmentalism, social liberalism, and winsome geniality.

What has transpired isn’t exactly rocket science. Put a state with a top marginal tax rate of 5.1% right next door to a state with a top marginal tax rate more than double that, and people, and jobs, will flow to the state with the lower tax rate. It’s like water flowing downhill.

Even the U-Haul website, a reliable barometer of moving demand and supply, tells the story — it’s more expensive to rent a truck for a one-way move to Boston from New York than in reverse.

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By a wide variety of measures, though, Massachusetts is doing better than New York. Massachusetts public school students do better on standardized tests than do those in New York, though New York spends more money for each student. The Massachusetts population is growing faster than New York’s is, according to the Census Bureau. Massachusetts residents have higher educational attainment and higher per capita income than New Yorkers do, and Massachusetts residents are less likely than New Yorkers to go without health insurance, the Census bureau says. Labor force participation rates are higher in Massachusetts, and the unemployment rate is lower in Massachusetts. Commutes in Massachusetts are slightly shorter. The poverty rate in Massachusetts is lower.

People who think of New York as New York City and its tall buildings may be surprised to learn that Massachusetts has twice the density of New York, as measured in population per square mile. As more and more New Yorkers move to Massachusetts, the Bay State may get even denser and the Empire State even emptier. What is true for countries is also true for states: a measure of success is when people are trying to get in rather than to get out.”