Ron DeSantis said California is ‘hemorrhaging wealth.’ That’s just not true, report says
Good morning and welcome to the A.M. Alert!
NO, HIGH TAXES AREN’T DRIVING WEALTHY CALIFORNIANS OUT OF STATE
It’s become a common refrain on the right: California’s high taxes are driving wealthy residents to pack up and move to more forgiving climes.
Florida governor and 2024 presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis brought it up on Fox News Tonight in June saying that the Golden State is “hemorrhaging wealth.”
It makes for a good campaign line, but it’s not true, according to a new report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a left-of-center think tank.
The report, by Senior Fellow Michael Mazerov, points out that while California has the highest marginal tax rate in the nation, it has the second-lowest out-migration among households earning $200,000 a year or more.
And what of Texas and Florida, two states whose politics stand in stark contrast to California’s?
According to the report, since 2011 nearly two-thirds of households that moved to no-income-tax Texas from California were replaced by households making the reverse move. Meanwhile, 91% of Californians who moved to Florida — another no-income-tax state — were replaced by Floridians moving to California.
“The idea that California’s progressive tax structure is driving people away is a myth,” said Kayla Kitson, senior policy analyst at the California Budget & Policy Center, in response to the study. “In reality, people choose where to live based on various factors, including job opportunities, family, and the cost of housing.”
You can read the full study here.
BERKELEY IGS POLL FINDS LACK OF VOTER PARTICIPATION IS A CONCERN
A new poll by the Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies found “wide differences” between California voters who regularly vote and those who do not.
Regular voters, defined as those who voted in five or more of the last seven elections, made up approximately 39% of all registered voters in the state. They are older and whiter than the majority of registered voters, and more likely to own a home, be married and have a college degree.
Infrequent voters, those who only voted in one or two elections of the last seven, made up 28% of the electorate, while non-voters were 15%. People in those two categories are younger, less likely to have a college degree, more likely to rent and be single and more likely to be Latino.
Three-quarters of California voters said lack of voter participation is a concern, with half calling it a major concern.
So why aren’t they voting?
Three out of 10 regular non-voters say it’s because they don’t know enough about the issues or that they aren’t interested. A little more than a quarter said that they believe special interests and big money control everything or that their vote doesn’t matter much.
Another 14% said they believe voting systems are corrupt and can’t be trusted; 9% said election ballots are too long; 6% said they are confused about how to vote, and another 6% said that voting is too inconvenient or takes up too much time.
However, a solid majority (63%) believe that California’s recent efforts to change how voting is done, with the switch to universal mail-in ballots, has made voting easier for them. That’s compared to 27% who said the change had no impact on them and 4% who said it made things more difficult.
UTAH MAN KILLED BY FBI MADE THREATS AGAINST NEWSOM
A Provo, Utah man killed by FBI agents Wednesday morning as they attempted to serve a search warrant made threats against several public figures, including President Joe Biden, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, New York Attorney General Letitia James, New York City District Attorney Alvin Bragg and California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
The threat against Newsom came in an Oct. 17, 2022 social media post in which Craig Robertson allegedly wrote, “Another Patriotic Dream: I’m standing over Gavin Newsom with a wound above his brow and my suppressed S&W M&P 9mm still smoking. FREEDOM FROM ‘STUPID’ DAY!!!”
“I believe ‘Gavin Newsom’ refers to the governor of California, Gavin Newsom, and ‘wound above his brow’ refers to a bullet hole in Gov. Newsom’s forehead,” wrote an FBI agent (whose name was redacted) in the criminal complaint, shared online by the Salt Lake Tribune.
Robertson’s death came just hours before President Biden visited Utah; social media posts in Robertson’s name threatened to kill the president when he came.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“We need to build more housing, faster. Everyone in California deserves to have a home and in just a few years we’ve made significant investments and progress to address the state’s housing crisis. Projects like these are reimagining what our cities look like — creating more housing near transit, work, and shops — all while increasing affordability and fighting climate change.”
- California Gov. Gavin Newsom, discussing plans to convert three Sacramento government-owned buildings into housing.
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