Flemming: Vermont is lucky to have high-tax neighbors, but still loses residents

By David Flemming

Vermont lost more than twice as many people to distant, less taxed states than it gained from mostly neighboring states that were taxed about the same as Vermont. That’s what the migration data from the Internal Revenue Service’s Statistics of Income (IRS SOI) and tax burden data from Wallethub tells us.

Between 2010 and 2016, Vermont lost nearly 7,000 people on net to 41 states. One in four of these Vermonters moved to Florida, home of the 0% income tax and balmy beaches.

What makes this interesting is comparing these side by side with the “state and local tax burden.” While we already know that Vermont has one of the highest property tax rates in the country, the tax burden metric gives us a better idea of how much in taxes we are actually paying, since tax deductions can skew the numbers.

Competing with the rest of the country outside of New England is a different story. We lost 3,960 people to Florida, North Carolina, Colorado, California and South Carolina, which all have lower tax burdens, ranging from 2.7% in Florida to 6.3% In California.

That said, we did gain nearly 3,000 people from the remaining eight states. Thankfully for us, legislators in our neighboring states are even more zealous about high taxes. We gained 1,155 migrants from New York, which places a 9.4% combined tax burden on property and income, a full two percentage points higher than Vermont’s 7.4%. That said, Vermont still has the highest combined income and property tax burden in New England: 7.4%.

Aside from New Hampshire (5.6% tax burden, to whom we lost 264 people), most New England states have a similar income and property tax burden. That goes from 7.1% (Rhode Island) to Vermont’s 7.4%. We gained 328 people on net from New England as a whole. Overall, it appears that when you are already being taxed exorbitantly, you may as well live in a beautiful state. Vermont has the “taxed exorbitantly” and “beautiful” bases nicely covered, but those taxes still hurt us overall.

David Flemming is a policy analyst for the Ethan Allen Institute. Reprinted with permission from the Ethan Allen Institute Blog.

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons/Dwight Burdette

6 thoughts on “Flemming: Vermont is lucky to have high-tax neighbors, but still loses residents

  1. It’s not just the taxes. Vermont has lost its moral compass. Infanticide? Baby killing? Who in their right mind wants to be associated with that? That, and being the state with the least personal freedoms would do it. Being a Vermonter today is an embarrassment.

  2. FYI, from my earlier post….I checked around some articles on Vermont and refugees.. From my quick read on the stats…in the last nine years VT’s population grew by an included 2,650 refugee’s. I have nothing against them – or the better life they pursue.. But the “ususal suspects” on the “other side” keep harping that VT population is not declining badly – but people are movig here. There is a difference of other US Citizens “choosing” to move to VT from other states….and from refugee’s being purposely IMPORTED here by charitable groups. Refugee’s have no choice, really, where they get chosen to relocate to, initially….it is whatever charitable group can get them in & settled. A “cleaner” picture of population (supposed) “growth” should disclose that. … in about nine years….2,600 refugee’s were imported to Vermont. If you take out of the count…. the imported refugee’s, the VT population numbers of supposed “growth” look even worse. It only magnifies it…. more people leave, than move here (US Citzens). Colchester seems to be the favored town. Here are the top nationalities and how many settled there…. in last 20 years:

    Colchester
    Somalia: 619
    Democratic Republic of the Congo: 216
    Burma/Myanmar: 203
    Russia: 153
    Burundi: 114
    Iraq: 105

  3. Not to worry. Eventually, the folks in Montpelier will realize that they are the only ones left to fund the government. Then they will start sinking their old hippy favorite song, “where have all the people gone?” Keep up the good work, your’e making progress.

  4. What bothers me is people here in Vermont vote for all these taxes and then when it hits them they move and go off to screw up another state…………

  5. After close to 40 yars of suffering, VT lost us to Arizona. People smile here, not sour and dour. And I’ve yet to see any protest marches, that are so frequent now in VT. People here don’t see themselves as “Victims” – that need compensation from others…. that are better off… (and work and take a lot of risk!)

    The VT population stats are not what they seem. Because they SAY that there is some “increase’ of population but what they don’t tell you is that there is a lot of refugee immigration coming to VT….there are many organizations pulling them in (lot’s of “free stuff” here). They account for a good bit…. We had some cleaners that came from Somalia. I have nothing against these refugees, but they consume more resources – than they put in….with so many types of Federal and State subsidy. But me? I produced large income for VT – especially after Capital Gains, Dividends and Inerest taxes (which is FREE adn NO risk money to VT!!!!).. I cut some BIG checks to VT over the years. Never again !!! There are about 3,000 people in VT who pay about $160 million in VT Income taxes. Can you imagine the financial hole if many of them left?. The financial & economic ignorance of the VT population astounds….All of VT should be on their hands and knees – THANKING the few thousand people for what they pay. Beg them, daily, not to leave….. Instead? VT loudly & poroudly procalim how much they hate them – and demand more, and more money! 🙂 Vermont is in teh final culmination of teh 40 years of uber liberal control….to finally created nothing… but a……Cult Society population. You can thank Bernie Sanders for much of it.

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