Because of taxes on the wealthy? Chicago still has a lot of ultra wealthy people and neighborhoods.
Illinois is ranked #9 in highest tax states in the union. Chicago has the highest sales tax of any city in the country. On overall taxes, Chicago is ranked as the 8th worst city in the country in terms of tax burden.
Yet Illinois is on the verge of bankruptcy. Interesting, that.
Detroit is a financial disaster after 50+ years of Democratic rule. Plenty of wealthy people still live there. In areas like Palmer Woods.
There will always be a mix of rich and poor, no matter where. Doesn't change the argument one bit. Detroit went belly up, yet the rich still live there. Illinois is going belly up. The rich still live there.
But taxes do drive people and businesses away. That is a fact.
My home state of MD is notorious for this, especially under the prior governor Martin O'Malley, the King of Tax (who implemented a 'rain tax' on we the citizens).
Following is a list of taxes he implemented:
2013:
Gasoline tax increase from 23.5 cents per gallon to 43.5 cents (fully phased in by 2016): $350 million
Additional contingent fuel tax rate increase tied to failure of Congress to pass Marketplace Fairness Act: $210 million
Indexing of fuel tax to CPI: $87 million
2012:
Flush tax hike: $53 million
Tax hike on smokeless tobacco and “Little Cigars”: $5 million
Elimination of Telecom Property Tax Credits (Corporate Income Tax): $7.4 million
Elimination of personal exemptions (Individual Income Tax): $51.7 million
Income tax hikes on individuals making over $100,000 and couples over $150,000: $195.6 million
2011:
Highway and Bridge toll increases: $90 million
Vehicle titling tax hike from $50 to $100: $52.4 million
Hospital provider tax: $390 million
Alcohol sales tax hike from 6-percent to 9-percent: $84.8 million
2008:
The Millionaires Tax pushes top marginal rate from 5.5-percent to 6.25-perent: $154.6 million
2007:
Senate Bill 2 - Real property transfer tax hike: $14.1 million.
House Bill 5 – “Tip Jar” tax hike, 20-percent “Admissions and Amusement” tax: $8 million
Tobacco tax hike from $1 per pack to $2 per pack: $133 million
Vehicle excise tax hike: $36.9 million
Vehicle titling tax hike (bumped from $23 to $50): $23 million
Sales tax hike from 5-percent to 6-percent: $603.4 million
Income tax hike with new rates between 4.75-percent and 5.5-percent: $191.3 million
State corporate income tax hike from 7-percent to 8.25-percent: $118.6 million
Eliminated use of captive real estate investment trusts for income tax purposes: $10 million
And here is the disastrous result:
Affluent Taxpayers, Jobs Fled Maryland Under O’Malley
Wealthy taxpayers and job-creating businesses fled Maryland at an accelerating rate as then-Gov. Martin O’Malley implemented a long list of tax hikes during his first five years in the state capital.
More than 18,600 tax filers left Maryland with $4.2 billion in adjusted gross income from 2007 – O’Malley’s first year as governor — through 2012, according to a Daily Caller News Foundation analysis of the most recently available Internal Revenue Service state-level income and migration data. The wealth of the fleeing Marylanders increased significantly during that time.
O’Malley raised taxes 40 times at an estimated cost to Maryland residents of $9.5 billion. The O’Malley tax blitz is widely credited with the 2014 victory of Republican Larry Hogan, only the second GOP governor in the deep-blue state in nearly 60 years.
O’Malley’s harshest taxes took effect on wealthy residents by 2012. Income and sales taxes were increased, while new taxes on flushing commodes and rainwater were imposed.
O’Malley also created a climate that drove businesses out of Maryland, TheDCNF previously reported.
Nearly 5,600 state-tax filers left Maryland in 2012 and took $1.6 billion with them, more than double the 2,300 who departed with $732 million in 2011.
The fleeing 5,600 filers had average incomes of nearly $291,900 — more than double the $119,100 the net average filer brought out of Maryland during O’Malley’s first year in office.
Maryland’s Comptroller agreed, concluding that the state’s population of millionaires decreased by one-third to around 2,000 in 2009.
And...
O’Malley’s Taxes, Regs Drove Jobs Out Of Maryland, Hurt Its Poor
The state lost nearly 6,000 businesses from O’Malley’s 2007 inauguration to 2013, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. Meanwhile, more than 14,600 residents left Maryland along with their tax dollars between 2010 and 2013, making the state the 16th worst in the nation for outflow migration, according to state officials in the Department of Planning.
It’s not just that businesses, like Beretta, are leaving Maryland. Companies, like Northrop Grumman, are also choosing to open new offices in surrounding states.
