Everyone complains about taxes. But millions of American households apparently are doing something about it: Picking up and moving.
A CNBC analysis of tax data and figures provided by two major national moving companies shows that states with the highest per-capita taxes, for the most part, are also seeing the biggest net migration out of those states.
Take Connecticut, for example.
Earlier this week, the Nutmeg State's legislature approved a collection of new taxes to close a two-year, $40 billion budget to help pay the multibillion-dollar tab to repair and replace the state's dilapidated roads and bridges. The package includes a 50-cent-per-pack hike in cigarette taxes and a bump in tax rates on corporations and the state's wealthiest earners.
The budget battle drew heated debate, along with threats from large employers like General Electric, which issued a rare statement that it might consider moving its Fairfield headquarters.
Republican opponents warned that the tax hikes would likely drive residents to flee to lower-tax states. One legislator suggested that a local moving-and-storage company up for sale should do a booming business moving households from the state.
"I think the best buy in Connecticut right now is a business for sale in Westport," Michael A. McLachlan, R-Danbury, told the AP earlier this month as the debate wore on. "For $650,000, a sharp investor can get up and increase this business into a mega moving company, because that's what people are going to be doing, starting today."
Based on an analysis of 10 years of tax data and the figures provided by United Van Lines and Atlas Van Lines, Sen. McLachlan may be on to something.
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