The New Yorkers leaving our state are more likely to head to south than anywhere else — where both the tax climate and economic climate are generally more hospitable.

But those numbers have slowed in the last five years after the economic recession battered Florida especially hard, the fiscally conservative Empire Center found in a report released today.

And in the last several years, migration to North Carolina has increased, outpacing Florida in 2009.

The Albany-based think-tank ran the numbers using data from the Internal Revenue Service. The numbers show the year-to-year movement of taxpayers and their dependents.

Meanwhile, the Empire Center also found that those with higher incomes are leaving the state and lower-income filers are moving to New York, with a net income loss of $37 billion from 2000 to 2009.

Incomes change over time, so this does not necessarily mean New York was $37 billion worse off at the end of
the period than it would have been if no moves had occurred during this period. At the very least, however, the average incomes of migrating taxpayers reflect New York’s ongoing loss of earning power – and, in many cases, job skills — to other states.

The migration of out New York — especially the jobs-starved upstate region — has confounded elected officials for years. A new sense of urgency seems to have sent in over the last several years as the state is set to lose two more House seats after it failed to grow at a faster rate than the rest of the nation.

The migration is generally blamed on the state’s poor business climate and reputation for having a high tax burden. But it also follows trends that are often seen in northeastern states — a loss of a manufacturing base and companies preferring to move their businesses to warmer temperatures where they can operate year-round.

RB Taxpayer Migration Final

Share|