Comments on: Map: Rhode Island posts 63% jump in upper-income taxpayers

By: oreo

oreo — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 15:27:42 +0000

#1 North Dakoda income tax = 3.99% of amount over $379,150. RI start taxing these people and they will move out.

By: oreo

oreo — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 15:17:16 +0000

Start tax them at higher rates and you will find the “trend” will reverse big time. Just because they use address’s here does not mean they live here.

By: Marc Comtois

Marc Comtois — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 17:30:35 +0000

FWIW, and keeping in mind all of the above caveats, I took a deeper look @ http://www.anchorrising.com/barnacles/014434.html

By: SentToCoventryRI

SentToCoventryRI — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 14:47:31 +0000

$200k was more in 1999 that it was in 2009, about 25% more.

By: Don Botts

Don Botts — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 14:09:04 +0000

Also, I assume this includes joint returns? So it is not necessarily a person earning over $200K, but 2 earners making a total of $200K or above. Not so hard to do in the Northeast, and GaryM hit it on the head with people crossing the border into MA where there are more high paying jobs and their unemployment rate is 4% lower than RI.

By: Mike N

Mike N — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 14:08:03 +0000

I am in agreement with Gary M. It is no secret we have lost thousands of jobs since the economic downturn. Many upper income wage earners make the commute to Massachusetts daily. Ted, do you have research that shows this? My guess is the Department of Taxation may have it as these individuals also file tax returns in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

By: Marc Comtois

Marc Comtois — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 13:28:30 +0000

Whether you believe in the “flight of the earls” or not (and I tend to NOT believe it–people with extra income can afford to live here, it’s the middle class who is leaving), this data by itself doesn’t prove if the “flight” theory is false b/c the data covers a time period before and after RI cut the capital gains tax and enacted the flat tax (around 2006), which were aimed at keeping/attracting high earners. It’s just as possible that the “earls” were “flying” until the 2006 reforms and then we saw an influx. We’d have to see yearly data to more accurately determine causation/correlation. This point has been made before: http://www.anchorrising.com/barnacles/011973.html

By: GaryM

GaryM — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 12:44:02 +0000

Ted,

Two questions:

How many of these employees were RI public sector employees?

How many were employees commuting across the state line to Mass and Ct.?

My guess is that the largest percentage of this growth was not as a result of private sector job creation here in RI.

Knowing where these jobs are is a huge part of the puzzle since workers commuting to Mass or Ct. can easily pick up and leave if we tax them too much.

We’ve already done damage by taking away the ability to write off itemized deductions. This is a big deal for high earners and one more reason not to come to RI.

By: Downsized54

Downsized54 — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 12:26:40 +0000

Numbers can be fudged this story is crap.

By: twiggy

twiggy — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 11:18:20 +0000

I wonder how many of these are firefighter or police retirees with cola boosting pensions?

By: Progress Report: Budget Day at State House, Projo Welcomes Netroots, Influx of the Earls

Thu, 07 Jun 2012 11:09:13 +0000

[...] you that the so-called “job creator” class is fleeing the state to avoid paying taxes, it turns out the opposite is true with the population of people who earn more than $200,000 grew by almost 60 percent between 1999 [...]

By: Pat Crowley

Pat Crowley — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 10:42:52 +0000

Vindication once again. The “flight of the earls” myth that was used as a justification to cut taxes on the elite in the middle part of the last decade is, once again, shown to be untrue. By the way, groups like the Economic Progress Institute and the labor movement said so at the time.