When you tax something you get less of it.
In 2008 Maryland’s government passed a millionaire tax, taking more than 6 percent of everything earned by the state’s millionaires (in addition to all other taxes they already pay). One-third of all millionaires in the state either moved away or quit earning so much money the following year. See here.
Now thousands of millionaires are fleeing the hostile state of California, which enacted America’s highest state income tax rates a couple years ago.
According to new research released by Charles Varner, associate director of the Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality, California lost an estimated 138 high-income individuals following passage of the Proposition 30 income tax increase championed by Gov. Jerry Brown (D) and approved by Golden State voters in 2012.