And the Democrats in Minnesota Still Wants to Raise Taxes...

This from the Coalition of Minnesota Businesses:

• Minnesota’s income tax burden is already high

• But Minnesota’s per capita personal income tax burden barely budged – falling from 4th highest in 1999 to 6th in 2006.

• Minnesota’s top income tax rate – 7.85% paid by single filers with taxable incomes above $74,650 – is the 10th highest in the U.S.
  

• Minnesota’s middle income tax rate – 7.05% paid by single filers earning $22,730-$74,650 – is higher than the top rate in 38 states.
  

• Even Minnesota’s lowest income tax rate is high. Single filers in Minnesota – taxable incomes under $22,730 pay a 5.35% tax rate – higher than the top tax rates in 19 states, including seven states with no personal income tax.

High-income families pay a disproportionate share of taxes

• Minnesota’s state and local tax structure is slightly regressive, meaning people with higher incomes have a slightly lower effective tax rate than middle- or lower-income Minnesotans. However, because of Minnesota’s heavy reliance on individual income taxes, our overall tax structure is less regressive than all but 10 states – including all of our neighboring states.
  

• Meanwhile, the top 10% of Minnesota households – those with annual incomes exceeding $124,000 – pay the majority (57%) of the income taxes and 39% of all state and local taxes.

Here is how the State of Minnesota is broken down into percentiles of income earners:

• Top 10%; 244,000 households; Incomes above $124,000
  

• Next 30% 735,000 households Incomes $51,500 - $124,000
  

• Remaining 60% 1.5 million households Incomes up to $51,500

People with money are necessarily people with mobility. If we should raise taxes on the geographically mobile, the results could be nothing less than disastrous. Again, according to the Minnesota Coalition of Businesses:

• 1995 - 2000: While 100,000 more people moved into Minnesota than moved out, Minnesota lost income due to migration.MSDC

• $100,000+: Among movers, those who left the state “had the highest median household income and per capita income and the highest proportion of households with incomes of $100,000 or more.” MSDC

• Not snow birds: Only 6% of those who left Minnesota were retirees.

If the DFL continues to kill the geese that lay the golden eggs; if the producers decide to go John Galt with their feet, Minnesota's economic straits will be dire, indeed:

• 12 to 1: Minnesota would have to attract 12 new households earning $31,000 to $40,000 a year to replace the taxes* paid by one household in the top 10% of income leaving the state.

• 18 to 1: Minnesota would have to attract 18 new households earning $31,000 to $40,000 a year to replace the taxes* paid by one household in the top 5% of income leaving the state.

• 49 to 1: Minnesota would have to attract 49 new households earning $31,000 to $40,000 a year to replace the taxes* paid by one household in the top 1% leaving the state.MBP/TIS

• 65 to 1: If just one of Minnesota’s roughly 6,000 households earning $1 million or more leaves the state, Minnesota has to attract 65 households earning between $48,000 and $66,000 to replace the lost tax revenue

So the DFL "feel-good" and politically-expedient mantra of "SOAK THE RICH!" and "MAKE THEM PAY THEIR FAIR SHARE!" will, in the end, soak all of us.

Now there's some forward thinking, DFL.

Keep it up and the entire state will be another Detroit.