by James A. Bacon
Virginia lost a net of 120,000 residents through domestic migration (excluding foreign immigration and emigration) over the decade between tax years 2011-12 and 2021-22, according to the Unleash Prosperity “Vote with your feet” database. That was the 9th worst performance among the 50 states.
That out-migration translated into a loss of $14 billion in adjusted gross income, or an average of $117,000 per person — not per household, but per person. On average, the households leaving Virginia were affluent. The loss of prime taxpayers translates into roughly $800 million in lost state income-tax revenue.
No surprise to anyone paying attention: Florida, Texas and North Carolina were the big winners. New York, California and Illinois were the big losers. Sadly, Virginia was the only loser on the South Atlantic Coast, one of the fastest growing regions of the country.
“The single most important thing that is going on in this country, economically and demographically, is the massive shift in migration that’s happened over the last 10 to 20 years, and it is accelerating,” economist Steve Moore told attendees at the launch of the Unleash Prosperity website.
Interestingly, Gov. Glenn Youngkin took time out of his schedule to speak at the unveiling. According to The Daily Signal, he attributed the population shift to what the news outlet described as “a virtuous cycle in red states of cutting or eliminating state income taxes, which led to a greater influx of people and jobs, which created a larger tax base and more revenue for state budgets.”
(more…)
