One-Third of Pennsylvanians Want to Move Away

Residents in states with high taxes to want to move out, according to a recent Gallup poll. This includes 33 percent of Pennsylvania residents. 

This shouldn't be a shocker—Pennsylvania families have been voting with their feet for a long time. 

Just last year, Pennsylvania lost 41,600 residents on net from state-to-state migration, nearly the entire population of York, Gov. Wolf’s hometown. That's one person leaving every 12.5 minutes.

From 1992-2014, the commonwealth lost $11.6 billion per year in adjusted gross income—and more than $350 million annually in state income tax revenue—due to state-to-state migration.

As I point out in a recent op-ed, Gov. Wolf's tax and spend agenda will only accelerate this "brain drain:"

Where are families moving? To North Carolina, Florida and Delaware—where state and local tax burdens are significantly lower.

States with the largest migration losses over the past five years — including Pennsylvania — had a higher average state and local tax burden (10.93 percent) than those with the greatest gains (8.84 percent).

The lesson is simple: People vote with their feet. Out-of-control spending and burdensome taxes change a state's future. To many, America's Keystone State is looking more like an exit door and Wolf's policies will push it ever wider.

Wolf's latest budget calls for a tax hike of $850 per family of four—that's on top of the existing state and local tax burden of more than $18,000 per family. In all, Wolf demanded an astonishing $3.6 billion in new taxes, including an 11 percent retroactive personal income tax increase. If Wolf gets his way, you'll owe higher taxes on money you've already earned.