The Facts Don’t Lie on Taxpayer Migration
What makes politics and policy fun is that people of good will and honest intentions can disagree and strive to change each other’s mind. Starting from one’s essential worldview, myriad stages of decisions must be made without the possibility of complete information — that is, subjectively — so persuading and being persuaded are distinct possibilities.
We can agree, for example, that we have a moral duty to help those who suffer and struggle among us. Whether government power is the appropriate tool to answer that moral call is a matter on which good people can differ (let alone the wisdom of specific programs).
What makes politics and policy frustrating is that, whether from selfish interests or personal investment in flawed ideas, participants often try to distort data points as if they are another layer of subjectivity. If public discourse and representative democracy are to function, there must at some point be a backstop of shared acceptance of facts.
A fact that I raised in a paper written with J. Scott Moody for the RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity is that federal income-tax payers have been leaving Rhode Island consistently for a decade, taking with them the accumulated equivalent of more than $1 billion in annual resident income.
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And this is news? High taxes, high energy costs, limited job opportunities, crazy, corrupt govt. (e.g. the vehicle tax, illegal haven,etc.). Oh and you mean people might move away from all of that?
What do you expect with a dominant political party which says “Screw” to productive people and has open arms for welfare leeches, mooches, corrupt cronies, illegal aliens and anchor babies from every Third World toilet?
Like our west coast twin Mexifornia we deserve EVERYTHING we get.
But, guys, we have great beaches!
Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free;
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,
Send these, the homeless,
Tempest-tossed to me
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame is the imprisoned lightning,
And her name, Mother of Exiles.
From her beacon-hand glows world-wide welcome;
Her mild eyes command the air-bridged harbor
That twin cities frame.
“Keep, Ancient Lands, your storied pomp!”
Cries she with silent lips.
It seems that ANTHONY of the megalomaniac all caps spelling, and Tommy Cranston, the defiling name caller, define immigrants who built this country as tax dodgers and welfare leeches totally miss the point as to who we are and what made us great; and of course Little Sir Echo sends her nodding accord.
OldTimeLefty
Monique,
RI might have great beaches when sewage is not overflowing and rainwater trash is not flowing closing the beaches down and although the beaches are free in RI you have to pay to park in the parking lot and carry your garbage out with you.
I left RI and now have over 110 clean beaches to visit daily that are free with free parking, free bathhouses and showers, free picnic tables and BBQs, trash is picked up daily and beach and picnic areas cleaned and with full time life guards.
My property tax dropped from over $3,200 to $300 a year (I could move to another county and drop it to $150 a year) for same priced RI house. I have no property tax on my car saving me over $500 a year. My retirement income is tax exempt from state income tax and unlike in RI my Social Security is tax exempt. My sales tax is 4% instead of 7% in RI. I don’t have fall, winter and spring heating bills as median temperature 365 day is 78 F degrees and winter low is 60 F degrees meaning I don’t need fall, winter, spring wardrobes only summer. My healthcare insurance dropped $100 a month due to state healthcare reform for same insurance company and my car insurance dropped $1,000 a year again due to state insurance reform moving out of RI. FBI ranks my city as one of the safest for its size (about 90,000 people) and it is ranked 2nd cleanest international city in the world; tourist taxes for hotel rooms, daily meals and rental cars are $5 total a day cheaper than in RI and I am still in the United States living cheaper than in Florida.
Ken,
Without disputing a word that you say, you name a number of costly services. I cannot imagine that “taxes are low”, it is simply that they are “outsourced” to tourists. I suppose that is what the “tourism industry” is all about. I suspect that all of that “free money” may cover up a lot.
Warrington Faust, Unlike RI, Hawaii does a lot more with less and has a tremendous less amount of overhead than RI. RI was first to declare independence and HI was last to be admitted into the union so HI had a lot of best examples to follow as well as bad examples not to follow from other 49 states. RI is the smallest state ranked 50th in the union at 1,545 sq. mi (including water) but it has 1 state government, 39 city and town governments and 37 school districts across 5 counties with a 2011 US Census population of 1,051,302 people. HI is ranked 43rd largest state in the union at 10,931 sq. mi (including water) and over 1,500 miles long and over 132 islands and atolls but it has 1 state government, 1 school district which is run by the state and 4 county forms of governments (mayor, city council) with a 2011 US Census population of 1,374,810 people with about 80% population living on 1 of the 8 main islands. In HI the very transparent governments follows the KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) principal. State funds are used to operate state government and all of the state-wide school system and county funds are used to operate local services in each of the 4 counties. Fiscal government budgets are balanced for 2 years and if there are any surplus funds at end of 2 years under state constitution the funds must be returned to the taxpayer (I’ve already received one rebate check in 6 years). Gambling of any form is illegal in the State of HI and this was one of the factors Walt Disney Company cited when it built its new $800 million Aulani 800 room hotel/resort and spa last year in Honolulu and has moved two… Read more »
HI PASSE SOUTHPAW…. YES YOU ARE CORRECT ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS BUILT THIS COUNTRY…OH WAIT.. YOUR SOCIALIST god HUSSEIN SAID NOBODY BUILT ANYTHING…NOW WHICH IS IT PASSE SOUTHPAW?