Top‐Scoring Governor Moving to Florida
Maine Governor Paul LePage announced that he will be moving to Florida at the end of his term.
LePage is a staunch fiscal conservative and has received an “A” on the past three Cato fiscal policy report cards. He fought for spending and tax cuts throughout his tenure, and he often decried the negative effects of big government.
Why is LePage moving to Florida? One of the reasons is that Florida has lower taxes than Maine:
I’ll tell you very, very simply: I have a house in Florida. I will pay no income tax and the house in Florida’s property taxes are $2,000 less than we were paying in Boothbay . . . At my age, why wouldn’t you conserve your resources and spend it on family (rather) than spend it on taxes?
Why indeed.
Florida has the most net in-migration of any state in the nation, as discussed in this study. It has no income or estate tax. Its state and local tax burden is much lower than the burdens in the Northeast. Maine is high-tax state, but New York is even worse. I wonder whether Governor Andrew Cuomo is considering Florida when he retires?
Relative to personal income, Florida runs its government at just half the cost of New York’s. Half the cost! That is like a Honda dealer trying to sell the Accord for $50,000 while the Toyota dealer across the street has the Camry for $25,000. It wouldn’t make any sense.
Perhaps the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is on Paul LePage’s mind. Because of the law, millions of households will become more sensitive to tax differences between the states. That may prompt an increased outflow of people from higher-tax to lower-tax states.
How should high-tax states respond to the outflows? It’s straightforward. They should run leaner governments with more efficient services to give taxpayers more value for their money. The Accord may have some features that the Camry doesn’t, but that would not double the cost.
