{"id":160114,"date":"2026-03-11T09:00:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T09:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/160114\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T09:00:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T09:00:15","slug":"blue-states-are-committing-tax-suicide-their-mania-is-contagious","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/160114\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue states are committing tax suicide \u2014 their mania is contagious"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s not just New York<\/a> and California<\/a>: All across the nation, blue states are committing political and economic suicide by targeting millionaires with high taxes.<\/p>\n

Who will suffer most from this ideologically driven push to punish the wealthy?\u00a0Wage workers and the poor.<\/p>\n

Leftist Democratic pols demanding\u00a0new state tax-the-rich measures<\/a>\u00a0are ignoring economic reality: Wealthy residents can and do move in response to unreasonable taxes \u2014 taking jobs, revenue and even congressional representation<\/a> with them.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

In Washington state this week, a slim Democratic majority is on the verge of passing<\/a> a 9.9% income tax on millionaires.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Evergreen State has never had an income tax \u2014 the state Constitution actually prohibits it \u2014 but Democratic Gov. Bob Ferguson is vowing to sign\u00a0this one into law. \u00a0<\/p>\n

The Tax Foundation ranks Washington state a dismal 45th out of 50 in tax friendliness due to its heavy sales, capital-gains, property and excise taxes.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tMore From\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBetsy McCaughey<\/p>\n

This millionaires\u2019 tax will add to that burden and drive out business.<\/p>\n

The exodus has already started: Starbucks, a Seattle icon, is moving much of its corporate management to income-tax-free Tennessee.<\/p>\n

But the Washington Education Association \u2014 the teachers\u2019 union \u2014 is demanding \u201ctax-the-ultra-rich\u201d as its top legislative priority, economic consequences be damned.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the same in Illinois, whose teachers\u2019 union\u2019s anti-rich mania is driving a push for a 3% surcharge on million-dollar earners.<\/p>\n

Illinois already has one of the heaviest tax burdens in the nation and is losing population because of it.<\/p>\n

To advocate for the millionaire\u2019s tax, the Illinois Federation of Teachers is claiming Massachusetts has had success with a similar measure.<\/p>\n

\u201cMassachusetts\u2019 4% surtax on millionaires generated nearly $6 billion for public services since its passage,\u201d the union insists. \u201cIllinois can do the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

And produce the same disastrous results: Since passing that surtax in 2022, Massachusetts is struggling with a significant net population drop<\/a> that Pioneer Institute economists call the \u201chollowing out of Massachusetts\u2019 workforce and economy.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n

Even venerable institutions like Cape Cod Potato Chips<\/a>, which shut down its last Bay State plant in January, have pulled out.<\/p>\n

In the last five years at least\u00a0182,000 residents have fled to other states, causing a demographic decline and a serious brain drain.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The evacuees skewed younger, particularly adults between 26 and 34, stripping the state\u2019s future workforce and tax base.<\/p>\n

Alarmed by the trend, fiscal reformers proposed a ballot initiative to lower Massachusetts\u2019 income tax on non-millionaires from 5% to 4%.<\/p>\n

Lefty Gov. Maura Healey won\u2019t budge: \u201cCutting income taxes doesn\u2019t make Massachusetts more affordable,\u201d she insists.<\/p>\n

Really?\u00a0It would save the average state taxpayer about $1,300 annually.<\/p>\n

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No, like so many Democrats, Healey\u2019s idea of affordability involves more government handouts.<\/p>\n

But the best affordability plan is a good job and a growing paycheck.<\/p>\n

These leftist ideologues are hurting the least mobile people in their state, leaving them stuck in a dead economy with few options.<\/p>\n

The nation is moving in two starkly different directions.<\/p>\n

States such as Oklahoma, South Carolina and Kentucky are phasing out their income taxes in an effort to attract businesses and new residents.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, deep-blue states like Illinois, Washington, Massachusetts, New York and California are exploding state spending and proposing tax hikes on top earners to fund an ever-growing array of social services.<\/p>\n

Their push is about more than balancing state budgets: It\u2019s rooted in a searing ideological revulsion at the rich.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why Connecticut state Rep. Jason Doucette, head of the legislature\u2019s Tax Equity Caucus, is pushing to increase the top state personal-income tax rate from 6.99% to 7.99%, claiming his goal is to redress inequity.<\/p>\n

And in New York, Mayor Zohran Mamdani has told us plainly<\/a>, \u201cI don\u2019t think we should have billionaires.\u201d<\/p>\n

This anti-wealth dogma is the enemy of prosperity.<\/p>\n

Residents of these radical blue states would benefit if their political leaders phased out the state income tax entirely.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an economy-killer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The President\u2019s Council of Economic Advisors estimates that phasing out Illinois\u2019 income tax, for example, would produce a $5,500 wage hike for the average worker \u2014 that is, more pre-tax earnings \u2014 and increase business start-ups by as much as 26%.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For years, income-tax-free states like Texas, Tennessee and Florida have led the pack in producing economic opportunity for their residents.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Every year more Americans vote with their feet<\/a> to settle in these states.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

But states that fall for the anti-wealth Marxist agenda taking over the Democratic Party will be left in the dust, with failing economies and shrinking clout in Congress \u2014 as their leaders\u2019 vindictive policies condemn their least mobile residents to poverty.<\/p>\n

Betsy McCaughey is a former lieutenant governor of New York.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s not just New York and California: All across the nation, blue states are committing political and economic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":160115,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[66022,5350,11539,27774,9,11,10,299,2780,985,25436],"class_list":["post-160114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-blue-state","tag-illinois","tag-massachusetts","tag-millionaires","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-opinion","tag-taxes","tag-taxpayers","tag-washington-state"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160114\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}