When Maryland raised their already high top tax rates the Governor said they’d be “willing and able to pay their fair share.”  Able? Probably.  Willing?  Not so much.

The year before before the tax hike about 3,000 residents had incomes of a million dollars or more.  A year later, that number had dropped by 1/3, to 2,000. They expected the new tax to raise an extra hundred million – instead they’re collecting a hundred million less from their millionaires.

Very few rich people got wealthy by being stupid, or by refusing to protect their assets.  While some of the drop was probably due to the economy, and no one knows exactly how many millionaires actually moved, it should be obvious that soaking the rich is a pretty stupid way to finance your pet government projects.

Update: Right after I wrote this post I found this editorial in the local rag.  The always snotty, always lefty Times Union (Known to us locals as the Times Useless) has the balls to castigate a successful business man, who has created hundreds of jobs, for leaving the state to save $5 million a year in taxes.  They said he was getting out of paying is fair share of taxes (they consider $13,800 a day fair) and compared him to Leona Helmsley.

Mr. G’s reply, in yesterdays TU, isn’t on their site yet, but he explains himself (as if he owed anyone an explanation) here.

Pop Question: If you could save nearly fourteen thousand dollars a day by moving, would you?

NYS government is one of the most dysfunctional in the country so it’s unlikely they’ll ever grow a brain cell or get a clue.  Meanwhile, we can not only expect more of the evil wealthy (i.e. the ones who create jobs directly through creating businesses and indirectly by spending lots of money) to leave, but other wealthy folks to stay away.

I’m not wealthy, and probably never will be, but if it happens, I am outta here too.