Minnesota Republicans like to assert that raising tax rates on high-income earners will create wealthy tax refugees to other states, as we noted in Grumpy cats complain to MN public radio about taxes but not really running away from home.
In today's New Ulm Journal, staff writer Josh Moniz reports in Dahms, Torkelson review session:
Area legislators Rep. Paul Torkelson (R-Rural Hanska) and Sen. Gary Dahms (R-Redwood Falls) shared their criticisms of this year's session of the Minnesota Legislature, along with reviews of a few bills they supported, with New Ulm residents Friday at the local Pizza Ranch.They focused their criticisms on the newly passed income tax hike on the top 2 percent of Minnesota' income earners: couples earning more than $250,000 annually or individuals earning more than $150,000. The DFL-controlled Legislature and Gov. Mark Dayton pushed the measure as a "tax fairness" measure in last year's elections.
Dahms said he is sure the tax will eventually drive the top income earners into states with lower income taxes. The argument has been commonly used by Republican politicians in recent years as an argument against top income tax increases.
However, several recent studies, including papers by the National Tax Journal on New Jersey in 2011 and by the Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality in 2011, have shown minimal to no link between increased top income taxes and the movement of top income earners.
Well, Katie bar the door.
The assertion is nothing new--nor are the studies that dispute it. During the 2011-2012 session, when the pachyderm party controlled both chambers of the state legislature, Bluestem factchecked specific claims in May 2011's Glenn gone wild: Gruenhagen's baseless talking point about tax refugees fleeing OR & MD, June 2011's Whatever the game may be, Parry borrows tax refugee fear talk from Glencoe Glenn Gruenhagen, and Octover 2011's Tales of Hoffman: senator reads actual article about Maryland tax refugees, makes things up.
Image: Grumpy cat gets negative.
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