Another Reason to Vote With Your Feet: Taxpayers in These States to See Tax Relief in 2024

It turns out incentives matter. Who knew? People in these states will be relieved, and people in higher-tax states will be incentivized to move when seeing which states will see cuts in marginal state income tax rates in 2024.

At least 12 states, a majority led by Republicans, will reduce taxes for residents in some form this year, according to the Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan group that lobbies for lower taxes.
Here is a closer look at where state taxes are being reduced.

The states are:

Arkansas
Connecticut
Georgia
Indiana
Iowa
Mississippi
Montana
Nebraska
New Hampshire*
North Carolina
Ohio
South Carolina

* - New Hampshire isn't cutting marginal state income tax rates but is instead phasing out a tax on interest and dividend income.

Note that most of these states (Connecticut being a notable exception) are Republican-controlled states. This is a big deal, of course, for those tax refugees from the high-tax blue states (but I repeat myself) that Sister Toldjah told us about on Tuesday.

Yes, incentives matter, and yes, people are sure as hell voting with their feet.

One might take issue with the first paragraph of this article, however, as it betrays a common and yet utterly wrong mindset that too many people, even people on the right — people who we would assume should know better (but you know what happens when we assume) — possess, and that is this:

A number of states are lowering income taxes this year, putting more money into many Americans' pockets as they continue to grapple with stubborn inflation.

No. That's wrong. These actions are not "putting more money into many Americans' pockets." That's utterly wrong. What will be happening now is that Americans will retain more of what was theirs to begin with — their money, the fruits of their labors. These states will be, in effect, confiscating less of their residents' incomes. The statement above implies that the government has first claim on the fruits of our labors, and that is just not so.

And confiscation, yes, is precisely what is happening here. Taxes are not voluntary. If anyone tries to tell you they are, suggest they stop paying taxes for a while, and see how long it takes agents of the government to send men with guns out looking for you (unless your last name happens to be Biden.) Taxes are collected and tax laws are enforced with the implied power and force of the government backing them up.

What's good about all this is that people are still able to vote with their feet — to leave states that are spending their tax dollars stupidly and move to states that have saner policies.

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While the moves by these states to reduce the burden of taxation are laudable, it's too easy to look at tax relief as a gift from the government. It's not. If a burglar breaks into your house, takes your TV, but leaves your laptop on the coffee table, he's not "gifting" you the laptop. He just didn't steal as much from you as he might have.

Granted, taxation is a necessary evil. There are legitimate purposes for government at various levels, distributed interests that the government actually is suited to handle — national defense, for example, or negotiating treaties with other nations. But tax policy should be focused on only taking what is truly needed to fund these functions — not picking winners and losers, not "redistributing" resources.

Even so, at least these states are moving in the right direction — and so, one would suspect, there will be even more citizens fleeing high-tax jurisdictions.

Speaking of tax rates, of course, one might note that my own Great Land didn't make the list. That's because you can't lower state income tax rates below zero; although you could make a case that the Permanent Fund disbursements are kind of a reverse state tax. But before people from the high-tax blue states get any ideas, let them consider the winters — weeks of sub-zero temps, snow measured in feet, power outages, wind, and highway closures! Californians, Oregonians, and anyone else from high-tax, blue states who might be thinking of moving to Alaska, be warned! Those winters — oh, heavens no, those winters!