The Homeless, Illegals, and Political Class Will Not Sustain This Sinking State – Opinion

Last Tuesday, the California’s Legislative Analyst Office reported on the 2020 Migration data released by the IRS. This has sent chills through political circles.

It should.

While in the past, outmigration tended to be more pronounced among lower-income Californians, in recent years the state has seen an increase in net outflows across all income brackets. In general, periods of high cost of living have always been associated to an increase in outmigration.

Recent IRS data regarding taxpayer migration (2020) was released by the IRS. These new data reveal that in 2020 the state saw a net flow of 260,000 taxpayers (0.8% all taxpayers), an increase of 165,000 (0.5%) from 2019. These net income tax collection losses due to outmigration are likely slightly more than one percent of the total state income tax revenue. This represents about twice as much forgone revenue due to outmigration in 2019.

District 6 Assemblyman and Congressional candidate Kevin Kiley (R-Rockin) mentioned this in his blog, noting the numbers on internal migration in the state from lockdown counties like Los Angeles to the more free and independent counties that rejected Governor Gavin Newsom’s emergency declarations and COVID theater and instead chose to sign on to the Health Communities Resolution introduced by Kiley and fellow Assemblyman James Gallagher (R-Yuba City). This Resolution requires local control in matters that impact the livelihood and well-being of residents. The Resolution also demands that elected officials collaborate with citizens to create policies based upon science and evidence. Not a “one-size fits all” approach, which is not supported by real data. The majority of the 13 or so counties who adopted this Resolution were located in the North. Outliers were Orange County and San Luis Obispo.

According to new IRS data, we have lost 260,000 taxpayers in other states. This is twice the revenue that was generated last year. This is clearly not sustainable.

However, the report did not reveal migration patterns. Inside California. Just as people are leaving the Lockdown State of California for the Freedom States of Florida, Texas, and Idaho, they are also leaving California’s Lockdown Counties for its Freedom Counties.

Think about the Healthy Communities Counties. These are the counties which passed the Healthy Communities Resolution I wrote with James Gallagher in 2020. The Resolution was both a protest to mandates and an affirmation of local control.

El Dorado, Placer, and El Dorado were the first to pass it, then several North State county counties followed, and finally 14 counties from California south of Orange. (See the Resolution and list of counties here)

According to IRS data, nearly all Healthy Communities have at least one. While counties grew in population, hyper-lockdown areas like Santa Clara, SF and LA lost residents. This truly is an indicator of changes.

So soon, all that will be left in Los Angeles County, Santa Clara County, and Sacramento County are the drug-addicted and the mentally ill—housed and unhoused—illegals, and the political class.

Cal Matters was also concerned about the loss of high-income taxpayers in California.

After 170 years of population growth — occasionally explosive growth — California is now experiencing population loss for the first time.

Net losses from state-to-state migration have been offset by declining foreign immigration. Since 2010, 7.5 million people have left California while 5.9 million people have come from other states.

This raises the question, “Who is leaving California?”

“Most people who move across state lines do so for housing, job, or family reasons,” Hans Johnson, a demographer for the Public Policy Institute of California, wrote earlier this year. Johnson noted that Californians who are unable to move back to California often have lower education levels than the Californians. It is no surprise, given California’s dominant motivations to migrate there for work and housing.

There is, however, a less obvious subset of those who leave California — high-income families seeking relief from the state’s notoriously high taxes.

Assembly Bill 2088 was introduced by the California Legislature in 2020. It aimed to establish a wealth-tax based on how many days someone lived in California. Annually, this tax would have been charged based upon the individual’s net worth. Wealth earned by the individual or acquired via gifts or estates years ago will also be included.

Although it failed, however, the greedy political class does not go quietly. The Unions can’t fund all things, it is obvious.

Proposition 30 is the latest money grab, now on the November 2022 ballot, that would boost the top marginal tax rate to over 15 percent to raise money for programs to battle… Klima change Newsom’s intrusive hand at work once again.

The California Legislature also plans to increase tax rates for 2024. Only then will they be forced to stop, unless there are no tax-paying citizens.

Evidently, the wealthy got it right. They have been searching for less greedy states to live in the past two years.

We taxpayers are still paying the freight.

The San Francisco Chronicle shed some light on that phenomenon when one of its reporters dove into Internal Revenue Service data that revealed favorite destinations of high-income former San Franciscans.

According to the newspaper, 39,000 San Franciscans had previously filed 2018 federal tax returns but had left before they could file 2019 returns. They collectively took $10.6 Billion in income, while those who came to San Francisco during the same period earned $3.8 Billion.

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