The latest print (dead-tree) version of National Review includes the following blurb:
Maryland has discovered that you can try to soak the rich, but the rich know how to swim across the Potomac. Faced with a budget shortfall, Maryland’s state legislators enacted a higher tax bracket for millionaires ? 6.25 percent on top of federal and local taxes. One-third of Maryland’s millionaires vanished from the tax rolls, many seeking haven in Virginia, Delaware, and Florida. The result: even with the higher rate, Maryland is now collecting $100 million a year less from the guys in monocles and top hats. Capital is mobile. So are capitalists.
North Carolina is absent from that list of destination states. Perhaps the fact that our top marginal income tax rate is 7.75 percent has something to do with it. Now the top rate could climb to 8.5 percent if budget negotiators accept the House’s budget plan. I’m reminded of the recent discussion with Scott Hodge about tax competition.
