By the time you’ve finished reading this essay, another American will have packed up their bags, left their former state, and moved to Florida. That’s not an exaggeration (unless you’re an exceptionally fast reader) — Florida is poaching a new resident from other states every two minutes and nine seconds.
In many ways, that’s a good thing. It isn’t just the beaches and sun that leads another New Yorker to become a Floridian every 16 minutes, it’s also sound fiscal policy that enables the Sunshine State to boast no income tax and, compared to New York, relatively low property tax rates.
It’s no coincidence that the most common former residences for newly arrived Floridians are New York, New Jersey, California and Illinois — all states with well-earned reputations for drain-circling tax-and-spend policies. Taxes aren’t the only reason people move, but it’s hard to deny that there are lines at the exits of all the states known for treating their residents like tax dollar deposits to be mined at will.
And, contrary to the popular narrative about Americans who move to Florida, it’s far from just retirees looking to live out their golden years in Florida’s golden rays. Florida gains a tax filer under age 35 every 12 minutes, with only Texas attracting more young arrivals from other states on net. In fact, Florida gained significantly more new residents under the age of 35 than new residents old enough to collect Social Security.
Being an attractive destination for new arrivals means more than just new neighbors. All those fresh arrivals expand the tax base, meaning more room in the budget for Florida lawmakers to pursue further tax cuts. For 2025 alone, we estimate that Florida will collect an additional $4.1 billion in tax revenue at the state and local levels due to inbound interstate migration.
But, while Florida should take pride that it’s the most attractive destination in the country for Americans moving to another state, fresh arrivals fed up with being overtaxed should take care not to bring their former state’s policies along with them. It makes little sense to flee New York or California because of their extortionate tax policies and stifling business environments only to vote for politicians promising the same things for Florida. If New York was bad enough to leave, then leave it in New York.
Most of all, Floridians — especially newly minted ones — should resist the urge to try to cash in on the growing influx of wealth into Florida by trying to levy special taxes on high-income earners. The most tax-happy states around the country, from California to Massachusetts to New York, are again trying to dig themselves out of a quicksand pit by raising taxes on wealthy residents even further. Legislatures in these states function as factories constantly churning out new ways to tax the usual progressive bugaboos of “millionaires” and “wealth.”
Avoiding these short-sighted tax hikes on wealthy residents who are both the most sensitive to tax increases and the most able to pack up and move is exactly why Florida gains the most new wealthy taxpayers every year. These wealthy taxpayers pay taxes in Florida, and lots of them — they just aren’t treated as easy prey for endless new spending projects. And that’s exactly why in Florida, the debate is over how best to deliver even further tax relief to residents, while the states your new neighbors fled from can never seem to raise enough money.
Floridians ought to consider themselves fortunate. Within a country that people around the world want to move to, they are living in the most desirable destination in that country. Just make sure not to replace the policies that have allowed Florida to flourish with those that made blue-state refugees pack up and leave in the first place.
Andrew Wilford, of King George, Virginia, is the director of the Interstate Commerce Initiative and a senior policy analyst at the National Taxpayers Union Foundation.
