The Wrong Direction

What to Know: Even as Texas has boomed, high-tax Connecticut is busting. Some in that state say it’s time for a change.

“For Connecticut taxpayers, the eight years of Democratic Gov. Dannel Malloy may feel like Groundhog Day,” the Wall Street Journal reports. “High taxes have repressed economic growth, swelling budget deficits that Democrats have ‘solved’ by raising taxes again and again. This year voters face a choice of whether they want to relive this misery for four more years or take a risk on a growth remedy. Once upon a time Connecticut had no income tax and attracted high earners from all over the Northeast. From 1976 to 1991, Connecticut led the country in GDP growth. But its fairy tale economy began to end in 1991 with its enactment of a flat 4.5% income tax. That soon became a ‘progressive’ tax, and rates have since climbed while taxpayers have fled.”

The TPPF Take: High taxes, more unnecessary regulations and less freedom to prosper are powerful incentives. In other words, the Connecticut Model drives people to places like Texas.

“Population migration doesn’t happen in a vacuum,” says TPPF’s Chuck DeVore, a former California Assemblyman who came to Texas in 2011. “People move for many reasons, among them: work, opportunity, and affordable housing. That’s why the Texas Model continues to attract new residents and new businesses.”

More From TPPF: