Conservatives across the nation have claimed in recent months that progressive attempts to reduce the burden of budget state budget cuts by raising taxes on millionaires will do nothing but cause the to lower-tax states. "Ladies and gentlemen, if you tax [millionaires], they will leave," said Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ), who vetoed a millionaire's tax not once, but twice.
But a new study from the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst throws cold water on these claims, showing that millionaires don't, in fact, move to avoid higher taxes (though they will engage in more tax avoidance, like shifting the composition of their income): The evidence available in the research literature suggests that the worst fears of the policy debates over raising additional revenue from high-income households to sustain spending on public services are unlikely... |