New York vs. Florida, Round #5

The first four rounds of my New York vs. Florida contest (available here, here, here, and here) largely focused on Florida’s superior economic policies and superior economic results. So you won’t be surprised to learn that Round #5 continues that tradition. We’ll start today’s column with a remarkable comparison put together by the Wall Street […]

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New York vs. Florida, Round #4

Politicians from New York want states to get a big bailout from Uncle Sam. I explained earlier this month that this would be a bad idea. Simply stated, the Empire State is in big trouble because it has a bloated government, not because of the coronavirus. Probably the strongest piece of evidence is that New […]

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New York vs. Florida, Round #3

I looked last year at how Florida was out-competing New York in the battle to attract successful taxpayers, and then followed up with another column analyzing how the Sunshine State’s low-tax policies are attracting jobs, investment, and people from the Empire State. Time for Round #3. A new article in the Wall Street Journal explains […]

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New York Vs. Florida, Round #2

I used to think Texas vs. California was the most interesting and revealing rivalry among states. It was even the source of some clever jokes and cartoons. But the growing battle between Florida vs. New York may now be even more newsworthy. I wrote last month about how many entrepreneurs, investors and business owners are […]

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New York vs. Florida, Round #1

I shared data a couple of weeks ago showing that Florida is the freest state in America (for both overall freedom and economic freedom) while New York is in last place (in both categories). Well, it seems that freedom has consequences when people can “vote with their feet.” We’ll start with an op-ed in the […]

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Great Moments in New York Government

Governments are inherently inefficient and incompetent. But some of them are worse than others. Looking at states, places such as Illinois, California, and New Jersey seem to be the worst of the worst. But New York also belongs on that list. Some of the Empire State’s problems are summarized in my five-part Florida-vs-New York series […]

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Red States vs. Blue States, Part V: Florida vs. California

I’ve written lots of columns comparing Texas and California (see here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here), and also several columns comparing Florida and New York (see here, here, here, here, and here). We’ll break from that pattern today because we’re going to compare Florida and California, motivated by tonight’s Fox TV debate […]

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Red States vs. Blue States, Part IV

In our series on red states vs blue states, we’ve examined different economic variables. Part I: Economic growth Part II: Unemployment rates Part III: Employment growth Today, let’s add another comparison. Here’s a map looking at 2022 income growth by state. The three states most known for bad policy – New York, Illinois, and California […]

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The Slow-Motion Suicide of New York and California

Two of the worst states for tax policy are California and New York. They have punitive income tax rates, high sales taxes, and myriad other ways of diverting money from the productive sector of the economy to finance bloated public sectors. I’ve written several time that greedy politicians in these states are driving away taxpayers. […]

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Florida vs. California

I have done eight columns comparing Texas and California and five columns comparing Florida and New York. But maybe it is time to compare Florida and California? If I do, there’s no comparison, at least based on how people vote with their feet. Even though California has the nation’s best climate and geography, the state’s […]

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Red States vs. Blue States, Part III

In Part I or our series comparing red states and blue states, we found that the former enjoyed better overall economic performance. In Part II, we discovered that red states did much better with regards to unemployment. But the unemployment rate does not fully capture the strength of the labor market. It’s also important to […]

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An Overdue Wake-Up Call for New York Democrats?

The economic outlook in New York (both the state and the city) has been very depressing in recent years. New York is ranked #50 in the Economic Freedom of North America. New York is ranked #48 in the State Business Tax Climate Index. New York is ranked #50 in the Freedom in the 50 States. New York is next-to-last in measures of inbound migration. New York […]

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New York’s Fiscal Suicide

The state of New York is an economic disaster area. New York is ranked #50 in the Economic Freedom of North America. New York is ranked #48 in the State Business Tax Climate Index. New York is ranked #50 in the Freedom in the 50 States. New York is next-to-last in measures of inbound migration. […]

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Texas vs. California, Part VI

I asked a couple of years ago, “How long can California survive big government?” Based on migration patterns, the answer is “Not much longer.” Simply stated, bad fiscal and regulatory policy have produced a long-run decline for the Golden State. So we shouldn’t be surprised that people are fleeing. And it appears Californians like escaping […]

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Red States vs. Blue States, Part I

I’ve written favorably about the pro-growth policies of low-tax states such as Texas, Florida, and Tennessee, while criticizing the anti-growth policies of high-tax states such as Illinois, California, and New York. Does that mean we should conclude that “red states” are better than “blue states”? In this video for Prager University, Steve Moore says the […]

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New York and Fiscal Suicide

New York is ranked dead last for fiscal policy according to Freedom in the 50 States. But it’s not the worst state, at least according to the Tax Foundation, which calculates that the Empire State is ranked #49 in the latest edition of the State Business Tax Climate Index. Some politicians from New York must […]

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The Continuing Tax Migration to Florida

Like most libertarians, I’m a bit quirky. Most people, if they watch The Great Escape or Rambo II, cheer when American POWs achieve freedom. I’m happy as well, but I also can’t stop myself from thinking about how I also applaud when a successful taxpayer flees from a high-tax state to a low-tax state. It’s […]

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Texas vs. California

Time for another edition of our long-running battle between the Lone Star State and the Golden State. Except it’s not really a battle since one side seems determined to lose. For instance, Mark Perry of the American Enterprise Institute often uses extensive tables filled with multiple variables when comparing high-performing states and low-performing states. But […]

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Nightmare for New York and California: Tax Reform Will Put Added Pressure on High-Tax States

The right kind of tax reform can help people directly and indirectly. They benefit directly if reform reduces their tax burden and gives them more take-home income. They benefit indirectly if reform increases growth and leads to additional pre-tax income. For what it’s worth, I think the indirect impact is most important for family finances, […]

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New Jersey’s Continuing Fiscal Decay

When companies want to boost sales, they sometimes tinker with products and then advertise them as “new and improved.” In the case of governments, though, I suspect “new” is not “improved.” The British territory of Jersey, for instance, has a very good tax system. It has a low-rate flat tax and it overtly brags about […]

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Some Uplifting News about Race in America

The racist march in Charlottesville, VA, was awful news. The vehicular murder of a woman by one of the racists is even worse news. The good news is that almost everyone in the nation is united in condemning the marchers. I especially like what Senator Ben Sasse said about how America isn’t an ethnic identity, […]

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From France to New Jersey, High Tax Rates and Class Warfare Are Economic Poison

Back in the 1980s and 1990s, there was a widespread consensus that high tax rates were economically misguided. Many Democrats, for instance, supported the 1986 Tax Reform Act that lowered the top tax rate from 50 percent to 28 percent (albeit offset by increased double taxation and more punitive depreciation rules). And even in the […]

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Turning New York City into Detroit?

I recently speculated whether Detroit’s fiscal problems should be a warning sign for the crowd in Washington. The answer, of course, is yes, though it’s not a perfect analogy. The federal government is in deep trouble because of unsustainable entitlement programs while Detroit got in trouble because of a combination of too much compensation for […]

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Blue-to-Red Tax Migration, Part V

Time for the final segment of my five-part series for 2023 on blue-to-red tax migration (previous versions here, here, here, and here). We’ll start with this table showing what has happened in America’s 10-largest states. You should notice a pattern. The table comes from a column for National Review written by Dan McLaughlin. He explains […]

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Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall, Which State Provides the Most Handouts of All?

Back in 2010, I put together a “Moocher Index” based on the percentage of non-poor people in each state getting government handouts. Based on that back-of-the-envelope calculation, Vermont, Mississippi, and Maine were the biggest moocher states and Nevada, Colorado, and Arizona were the most self-reliant states. Then, in 2013, I shared some data looking at […]

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Ranking State Pension Debt

Whether at the federal level, state level, or local level, my biggest problem with bureaucrats is that many of them work for agencies and departments that should not exist. My second biggest problem is that they are overpaid compared to workers in the productive sector of the economy. And I could add other concerns, such […]

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Blue-to-Red Migration, Part II

In Part I of this series, I shared some excerpts from a Wall Street Journal editorial that documented how taxpayers fleeing high-tax states such as California, New York, Illinois, and New Jersey. Where are they going? In many cases, they are moving to zero-income-tax states such as Florida and Texas or flat-tax states such as […]

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Blue-to-Red Migration, Part I

I realize it’s not nice to take pleasure in the misfortune of others, but that rule does not apply when bad things happen to greedy politicians. As such, I greatly enjoy reading about when taxpayers “vote with their feet” by moving from high-tax jurisdictions to low-tax jurisdictions. I enjoy when there is tax-motivated migration between […]

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Lessons from the Texas Budget

I shared some data last month from the National Association of State Budget Officers to show that Texas lawmakers have been more fiscally responsible than California lawmakers over the past couple of years. California politicians were more profligate in 2021 when politicians in Washington were sending lots of money to states because of the pandemic. […]

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Illinois and Fiscal Suicide, Part II

Yesterday’s column discussed Caterpillar’s decision to move its headquarters from high-tax Illinois to low-tax Texas. Today, we have more bad news for the Prairie State. A major investment fund, Citadel, also has decided to leave Illinois. Is the company moving to a different high-tax state, perhaps California or New York? Maybe Connecticut or New Jersey? […]

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