Young New Yorkers flee high taxes

Anti-tax advocates frequently argue that high tax rates drive away an area's richest residents.

Taxes also might prompt moves by those at the other end of the earnings scale, young adults just beginning their careers.

A recent poll by the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion found that more than a third (36 percent) of New Yorkers younger than 30 are planning to leave the Empire State within the next five years.

Overall, the NY1/YNN-Marist Poll conducted last month found that 26 percent of adults in New York state plan to move someplace else in the next five years.

Why the relocation consideration? The New York economy.

Sixty-two percent of the poll respondents cited economic reasons like jobs, the cost of living or taxes as the reasons they plan to move.

When the survey responses are broken down further, the main reasons for the planned moves are:

• Cost of living, 30 percent;
  
• Taxes, 19 percent; and
  
• Jobs, 10 percent.

"New Yorkers are feeling the financial squeeze on the home front. Right now, many young people do not see their future in New York State," says Dr. Lee M. Miringoff, Director of The Marist College Institute for Public Opinion. "Unchecked, this threatens to drain the state of the next generation."

Here in Central Texas, we've had an influx of Californians over the last few years. Most Golden Staters have moved here for jobs. But they, too, have noted that the cost of living, especially the Lone Star State's relative housing bargains, and no-income-tax status were appealing reasons to relocate.

Have you moved recently or plan to relocate to another state soon? Why? Were or will taxes be a major factor in deciding where to live?

Photo by sjlocke via iStock

Related posts:

• High state tax rates encourage residents to move away … or not
• Flight of the 'golden geese' taxpayers
• U.S. tax expatriates expanding
• The mess, and deductibility of moving
• Writing off job related moving costs

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