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I would note that this is even more lopsided than the U-Haul statistics, and van line moves are more likely to include high wage earners / taxpayers.
If the top 0.1% income tax filers in NYC (3500 people) moved out of state, the city of NY would lose 23% of its tax revenues and the state of NY would lose 28%.
*income tax revenue, not total tax revenue
in fact it matters a lot more than pulling a lever in a voting booth https://twitter.com/ohiospud/status/1346450893454139392
I didn't bother voting in Illinois, and I don't vote in Texas, and for the same reason: it wouldn't make any difference. Moving from Illinois to Texas, now THAT made a difference.
Of course, every time I tweet on this topic, my mentions blow up with the "them gotdamn rich commie libruls all movin' here and turnin' us into San Fransicko" canard. Lemme share a few thoughts as an Austin Chicago refugee.
I know many people who have likewise voluntary moved from fucked up states to Austin, and uniformly all understand the reasons their former states are fucked up, and don't want it repeated here.
Second, there has been no point in anyone's lifetime when Austin hasn't been a vigorously left-leaning enclave in Texas. It isn't this way because of California tech industry newcomers, it's because it has always attracted left-leaning people from other parts of Texas.
The biggest downside to out-of-state influx is that it has driven up real estate prices, which makes it hard to maintain Austin's funky live music & weirdos soul. Hard to keep a live music honkytonk when the land it sits on is worth a gazillion $ to condo developers.
And even more so if you're a musician. The days of aspiring Stevie Ray Vaughns paying $200 / month for a rental house on the East Side with gig income are long gone.
The flip side to that coin: if you own real estate in Austin, it's kind of thrilling to see the value of your house go up like a garage sale Faberge Egg.
*That is, until you get your property tax assessment. The biggest beneficiary of the Cal->Austin real estate boom is the lunatic City Council (all Texans mind you), who have all kinds of ideas what to do with those newfound billions. Like toddlers with machine guns.
