California’s Loss is Texas’s Gain: Over $2 Billion Brought Over in Migration
As if Texas didn't have enough pride, a recent report from the Internal Revenue Service of all places shows the Lone Star State attracting more Californians to relocate here than in the past few years.
Going by tax returns, over 250,000 Californians moved out of the state and 33,626 of those folks landed in Texas, bringing with them $2.19 billion in adjusted gross income AKA earning power.
Meanwhile, for the same period, the IRS reported 21,391 switching from Texas to California taking with them $1.56 billion in adjusted gross income. That doesn't seem great for us until you balance it against the figure in the first paragraph: in that span of time, we gained real income earners in the amount of ⅔ of a billion dollars. Departing Texans, don't let the door hit you on the way out… leave it open for the Californians coming in. We win. Again.
Some would say we don't win because we don't have an income tax. We can't add to the state coffers by taking our "fair share" of what these folks earned. Yet that's precisely the reason some folks are leaving California for Texas. And instead of having this earning power tempered by high taxes as they are in Cali, the money earned by these new residents is spent and/or invested, and goes right back into the economy. Everyone who knows about basic economics knows we all win when that happens. (Well, they should anyway.)
Check out the rest of the lowdown on this sunny Texas economic news from the Washington Free Beacon.
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