Someone Please Turn The Lights Off

The NY Post has an article regardng a report that describes how residents of New York State are manifesting their displeasure with taxes by voting with their feet. It found that between 2000 and 2008

More than 1.5 million state residents left for other parts of the United States...

I have seen this with friends and relatives. I wish I had kept count of all the cops who retired and left the state (with their pension dollars) to pursue another career else where, primarily South Carolina and Florida.

The vast majority of the migrants, 1.1 million, were former residents of New York City -- meaning one out of seven city taxpayers moved out.

"The Empire State is being drained of an invaluable resource -- people," the report said.

Like a flock of pigeons, the facts fly over the heads of our elected pols. The most efficient producers are leaving. They are being replaced with those who are less efficient or who are only consumers.

It all adds up to staggering loss in taxable income. During 2006-2007, the "migration flow" out of New York to other states amounted to a loss of $4.3 billion.

There is something that I find offensive when the mass exodus from a once great state like this is measured by loss of tax revenue. Is that how we now view citizens - like cattle?

While New York City and the state were the losers, the Sunshine and Garden States were winners. more than 250,000 New Yorkers who lived in and around the city fled to Florida. Another 172,000 city taxpayers ended up in New Jersey.

Perhaps NY can sue these states for rustling.
But no matter. If Obongo has his way, all states will have the same lousy pastures and we'll have no place to go.