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New Report Reveals Massachusetts Has Lost $14.8 Billion In Income Since 2020 As Millionaires, Young Workers, And Retirees All Flee
March 20: Posted by Mass Daily News Staff
BOSTON — When Massachusetts voters approved a 4% surtax on incomes over $1 million in 2022, supporters promised it would pour billions into schools and transportation without consequence. Tax the rich, fund the future, everyone wins: $14.8 billion gone since 2020
Newly released federal migration data — the first full year after the surtax took effect — shows Massachusetts lost $4.18 billion in adjusted gross income to other states in 2023, according to Pioneer Institute, a Boston-based think tank that analyzed the IRS data. That’s a 467% increase over the past decade. Massachusetts now ranks fourth in the entire country for net income out-migration — behind only California, New York, and Illinois.
And it’s not slowing down. Since 2020, the state has hemorrhaged a net $14.8 billion in adjusted gross income. That’s not a blip. That’s a structural collapse.
How Is Blue State’s Plan to Replace Taxpayers with Migrants Going?
March 27: Red State by Becky Noble
Massachusetts is on the verge of a financial implosion. The reason: Massachusetts Democrats’ grand plan to replace the state’s taxpayers with migrants is not the grand plan they expected it would be, and the state is in for a perfect storm.
Massachusetts now stands at number 47 in population gain, and a loss of 30,474 residents.
You might think that Massachusetts’ elected officials would start connecting the dots. But that is not what is happening. In fact, just the opposite, Massachusetts has imposed a millionaire tax, which is, of course, further contributing to the mass exodus of residents fleeing the state. Over the last year, Massachusetts has lost a whopping $4 billion in taxable revenue. And as you might expect, roughly 70 percent of that comes from the state’s wealthiest residents.
A recent study from the Pioneer Institute showed that in 2023, the first full year after the state imposed a four percent wealth tax, Massachusetts lost nearly double that amount of adjusted gross income (AGI) than any year before 2020. The study went on to say: “Massachusetts’ net loss of AGI to other states grew from roughly $900 million in 2012 to $4.18 billion in 2023, representing a 467 percent increase over the past decade.”
The Pioneer Institute’s Jim Stergios had this to say about Massachusetts’ predicament:
“Massachusetts’ losses are concerning because they are big, broad and persistent year after year. We are losing key working-age and pre-retirement cohorts—even as federal policy changes have shut off immigrant labor. That combination poses real risks for the state’s labor force, tax base, and long-term economic vitality. The question is: Are elected officials getting the message?”
The AGI loss is being felt in business, home sales, and even in education. But as stated above, what is Massachusetts politicians’ answer to this mess? Not only are they not making any cuts in government spending, but they are convinced that taxing residents will vault the state into financial success.
Blue state politicians are not learning anytime soon that if you tax them, they will leave.
Where It’s All Going?
Florida and New Hampshire — two states with no income tax — accounted for roughly half of all outbound filers and about 66% of the total AGI lost. To those two states alone, Massachusetts lost $2.75 billion in 2023. That figure has quintupled in a decade.
And it wasn’t random people leaving. Taxpayers reporting $200,000 or more in income accounted for 70% of the $4.18 billion in losses — up from the prior year and more than double the share from 2019. Fewer people left in 2023 than in 2022, but those who did were richer. The surtax didn’t cause a stampede — it caused a targeted evacuation of exactly the people the state can least afford to lose.
The Young Are Leaving Too
Massachusetts lost a net 7,582 filers aged 26 to 35 in 2023 — more than five times the number from a decade ago. These aren’t retirees chasing sunshine. These are the workers, the founders, the people who were supposed to build the state’s future.
And it gets worse at the other end. A net 3,304 filers aged 55 to 64 left, taking $1.3 billion in AGI with them. That age group’s losses have increased nearly thirteen-fold since 2012 — a wave likely to accelerate as baby boomers continue to retire and the state’s estate tax pushes them toward friendlier jurisdictions.
The $6 billion Illusion
Supporters will point out that the surtax has generated more than $6 billion for state coffers since it took effect. And that’s true. But it’s worth asking how long you can keep collecting from a pool that’s actively shrinking — and whether the math works when 70% of your income losses are coming from the exact bracket you’re taxing.
For years, international immigration papered over the domestic exodus. New Census data show that buffer is collapsing: since peaking in 2024, international migration has fallen sharply and is projected to decline nearly 90% by 2026. The safety net is gone.
Critics Saw It Coming
This isn’t exactly a surprise. Critics warned this would happen before the ballot measure passed. HubSpot co-founder Brian Halligan, one of the most prominent tech entrepreneurs in Massachusetts, said the state was becoming “unlivable” as costs and taxes spiraled. When the people building companies and creating jobs start saying that out loud, it’s not a warning anymore — it’s a diagnosis.
Healey Says ‘No’
Meanwhile, Governor Maura Healey has dismissed proposals to lower the state income tax from 5% to 4%, calling it a multibillion-dollar budget hole. Business-backed groups are pushing ballot questions this year to do it anyway, arguing the state’s tax competitiveness is collapsing. Massachusetts has already dropped from 36th to 43rd in the Tax Foundation’s State Tax Competitiveness Index since 2020.
The state that sold voters on taxing the rich is now discovering what happens when the rich decide they’d rather live somewhere else. And for everyone left behind — the workers, the small business owners, the middle-class families who can’t afford to relocate — the math is only going to get worse.
Mike Hernandez is co-founder of the Citizens Journal–Ventura County’s online news service and writes for CitizensJournal.net and MountainTopMedia.com. He is a former Southern California daily newspaper journalist and religion and news editor, writer of “Prayer Over News Daily” and edits the weekly “Stories Speak Volumes” and other columns. Mr. Hernandez mentors citizen journalists with trainings held every other month (on Saturdays at Shasta Bible College and online) and can be contacted at MikeHernandezMedia.com.