Blue States Turbocharging Their Own Collapses With New Tax Gambits
John Loftus
Editor at Large
April 06, 2026
Some of the bluest blue states in the country are collectively flirting with disaster as they weigh new tax policies to address their respective budget crises and keep the entitlement gravy train chugging to nowhere.
The most notable proposal is California’s Billionaire Tax Act, which would impose a one-time 5% tax on residents worth more than $1 billion. The move has already driven out several companies and high-net-worth individuals, including Google co-founder Larry Page and White House AI czar David Sacks, and triggered internal strife among state Democrats.
Imagine you are an entrepreneur, and your net worth is tied up in your company’s paper valuation. Thankfully, you might not have enough liquid assets to be subjected to California’s tax proposal. But if your company is valued at, say, $3 billion, you would still be getting handed a huge tax bill for that valuation. And, if you try to run for the hills and book it to a more business-friendly state, your former state could hammer you with the wealth tax after you’ve moved.
Meanwhile, Washington state recently passed a 9.9% tax on incomes over $1 million. The state had never had an income tax in its history. As the bill cleared its final hurdles, Starbucks founder Howard Schultz announced he was leaving for Florida, and it’s hard to blame him.
Under a proposed amendment to Michigan’s state constitution, a 9.25% top income tax rate for earnings exceeding $500,000 would be established to skim money from the wealthy. But it would surely trigger a mass exodus of productive residents, drastically weakening the state’s tax base.
https://dailycaller.com/2026/04/06/democrats-liberal-states-wealth-exit-tax-proposals-california-new-york-budget-crises-waste/
