Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis hit the headlines the other week for flying a handful of illegal immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard.
When residents of that quiet corner of New England came face-to-face with the consequences of how they vote, there was lots of liberal outrage.
At the same time, Governor DeSantis talked about what he termed ‘the Great American Exodus’. This is his term for the mass movement of people that is currently underway within the United States. Over the past few years, it has become clear that millions of Americans are leaving their homes in the northeast and along the west coast, and moving south.
Covid saw many companies leave the traditional business clusters centered around New York, Chicago and California, and set up shop in the South. Far from slowing down, this trend seems to be accelerating.
According to Daniel Henninger writing in the Wall Street Journal this week, between July 2020 and July 2021 the population of San Francisco fell by an astonishing 6 percent and New York by over 3 percent. California is estimated to be losing about a quarter of a million people a year. Illinois over 100,000 a year. Folk are leaving progressive states and heading to more conservative communities.
The Great American Exodus means that America’s economic, demographic, political and cultural center of gravity is shifting south.
Look at a map of the Southern states, and you will see that here in Mississippi we are surrounded by a swathe of fast growing states, such as Texas, Tennessee, Florida, Georgia and North and South Carolina.
Mississippi stands out as one of the few southern states that until now has not really grown. The Mississippi Center for Public Policy exists to help change that.
Those states in the South that are growing have three things in common; low taxes, light regulation and limited state government. Neither Texas nor Tennessee nor Florida, for example, have a state income tax at all.
That is why the Mississippi Tax Freedom Act, passed by our state legislature earlier this year, was so important. It puts our state on the path to greater prosperity, and gives over a million workers in our state a tax break.
For years, Mississippi has depended on federal handouts to encourage economic development. If federal subsidies generated wealth, Mississippi would be the richest state in the Union.
The Mississippi Tax Freedom Act points instead to a different model for growth.
Instead of any more federal slush funds, we need to make our state a better place to do business.
The State Policy Network, which helps state-level think tanks right across the country, this week awarded the Mississippi Center for Public Policy an award in recognition of our role in helping make the Tax Freedom Act happen.
Obviously, I am pleased that the organization I work for got an award. Much more important is the fact that the Tax Freedom Act is now being recognized nationally as a game changing policy reform, and just the kind of policy innovation we need to turn our state around.
