High-tax states keep raising taxes, despite residents' exodus: Varney
We've spent a lot of time railing against the high taxes in Democrat-run states like New Jersey, New York, Illinois, California and Connecticut. We've suggested, and shown, that a mass exodus is getting under way.
But those states just won't quit. There's a whole raft of new taxes still to come. Nasty little charges and fees that touch just about everyone. The Wall Street Journal calls them "nickel-and-diming Democrats."
For example, Connecticut’s Democratic governor, Ned Lamont, wants residents to pay the sales tax on car parking, hair cutting, over-the-counter drugs. Take your dog to the vet: pay the tax. Download a newspaper, or magazine: pay the tax. Store your boat, go camping: pay the tax. And, of course, there's the jihad against soda: Yes, there's a sugary drink tax. What's this all about? Paying government worker pensions!
Illinois has a crippling pension debt. Paying the state's retired workers consumes a quarter of the entire state budget. Their new governor, J.B. Pritzker, will start taxing plastic bags, marihuana and sports betting. Plus, as we have reported, they want to take money from 401ks. That’s private pension money, to help pay for retired government workers.
I jumped into a New York City cab the other day and had to pay a couple of bucks extra as a surcharge. This is how the city will pay to fix the subway, now that Amazon has been driven away!
Let’s not forget Rhode Island. Gov. Gina Raimondo wants to extend a 7 percent sales tax to Netflix, iTunes, landscaping services and beach parking.
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As you can see, it’s a long list of new fees, charges and taxes that the long-suffering residents of already high-tax states will have to bear.
Or will they? Will they have to grin and bear it and stay? No. As we've reported so often, there's already a clear trend: Money and people are leaving high-tax for low-tax states. It’s going to be a flood.