Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker shrugged in 2022 after high-profile corporations left his state. “Countless companies are choosing Illinois as their home,” Pritzker said at that time. The question becomes: Why does a new IRS report show an accelerating taxpayer exodus from Illinois and other high-tax states? Each spring, the IRS publishes data on the movement of adjusted gross income (AGI) and taxpayers crossing state lines. Some Democrat governors claimed that the 2020 Census undercounted their state populations, but the IRS data shows blue states are losing taxpayers and income at an accelerating rate. The data shows a net 105,000 people left Illinois in 2021, taking with them some $10.9B in AGI. That’s up from $8.5B in 2020 and $6B in 2019. New York’s income loss increased to $24.5 billion in 2021 from $19.5 billion in 2020 and $9 billion in 2019. California lost $29.1 billion in 2021, more than triple what it did in 2019. By contrast, the lowest tax states added some $100B ion of income during the pandemic. Zero-income-tax Florida gained $39.2B - up from $23.7B in 2020 and $17.7 billion in 2019. About $9.8B of the total arrived from New York, $3.9 billion from Illinois, $3.7B from New Jersey and $3.5B from California. Texas was another winner, attracting a net $10.9 billion in 2021, which follows a gain of $6.3 billion in 2020 and $4B n 2019. Californians represented more than half of Texas’s income gain in 2021. The Golden State also sent $4.4B to Nevada, $2.7B to Arizona and $2B to Washington. Nevada and Washington don’t tax wages, and Arizona is phasing out its income tax. Illinois lost income to all of its neighboring states, but the biggest beneficiaries of its taxpayer flight were Florida, Texas, Indiana and Wisconsin. Mr. Pritzker can’t blame lousy weather since it’s not exactly balmy in Kenosha. (Wall Street Journal editorial board 04/28/23) The Blue State Exodus Accelerates (msn.com)