What Richard leaves out of his point is that, at least here in California, a state government that extracts high taxes from its citizens of course believes that it can also extract lots of money from another piggy bank: businesses. We had a famous incident here just after Schwarzenegger got elected. Arnold’s a true RINO, except that he’s only intermittently in favor of tax increases. In his first months in office, one of California’s more famous businesses, one that epitomizes our state and its culture, announced it was moving to Oregon. I forget its name. It made granola and organic juice, that sort of thing. When they announced they were leaving, and Arnold asked why so that he could convince them to stay, they said–brace yourself–that the state’s business climate was too hostile to entrepreneurship. Mind you, this place was run by granola-eating hippies, the guys who go to the office wearing jeans and ponytails, the sort who conclude their emails with the salutation “Peace”. The sort of guys who believe in paying higher taxes for the betterment of man and the advancement of society. Anyway, Arnold said he would do for them what he could, but the State legislature, run by that other party, said that of course they needed more tax revenue, because some of their programs were underfunded. Now the organic juice and granola guys are in rural Oregon, making their stuff and sending their tax dollars to Eugene, or Springfield, or wherever Oregon’s capitol is.
One trick no politician has managed yet, but trust me they’re going to try, soon: raising taxes on people who’ve left your state. Eventually, you’re going to be living in some tax haven, and you’re going to get a bill in the mail. “Hello, if you’d stayed in California you’d owe the state $18,202. With the passage of our new law, you *still* owe us the money, even though you don’t live in the state any more. Please use the enclosed envelope to send your payment.” That’ll be fun, won’t it?
