Grand Rapids Pundit

Today Volkswagen announced that they will not be building a new car factory in Michigan. They opted to Tennessee instead. According to the article:

Chattanooga won the site because of incentives and tax breaks offered by Tennessee and better infrastructure, the person said. Alabama was a close second while Michigan had been out of the running for some time, according to the person. (Emphasis ours)

Does this surprise anyone? With Michigan’s newly-formed business tax mess, the strangling environment of unionization, and a dismally-performing public school system, no wonder jobs, people, and businesses are not choosing Michigan. When will Lansing wake up and tackle the real economic challenges in this state?

Just for fun, we compared state population growth in the United States with state tax burden levels. The top 20 states that had the highest population growth between 2000 and 2007 are below:

State            Percent  Rank
                 Growth

Nevada           28.41    1
Arizona          23.5     2
Utah             18.5     3
Georgia          16.6     4
Idaho            15.9     5
Texas            14.6     6
Florida          14.2     7
Colorado         13.0     8
North Carolina   12.6     9
Delaware         10.4     10
South Carolina   9.9      11
Washington       9.7      12
Oregon           9.5      13
Alaska           9.0      14
Virginia         8.9      15
New Mexico       8.3      16
Tennessee        8.2      17
California       7.9      18
New Hampshire    6.5      19
Montana          6.2      20

 
Below are the 20 states with the lowest tax burdens:

State           Tax Burden    Rank
Alaska          6.58%         1
New Hampshire   8.01%         2
Tennessee       8.49%         3
Delaware        8.75%         4
Alabama         8.83%         5
Oklahoma        9.00%         6
South Dakota    9.02%         7
Texas           9.30%         8
Wyoming         9.46%         9
Montana         9.74%         10
New Mexico      9.80%         11
North Dakota    9.90%         12
Florida         9.96%         13
Oregon          10.03%        14
Nevada          10.09%        15
Idaho           10.12%        16
Missouri        10.12%        17
Virginia        10.20%        18
Georgia         10.27%        19
Arizona         10.34%        20

 
Surprise! 14 of the 20 states with the lowest tax burdens are in the top 20 states for population (and job) growth. Conversely, the five states with the highest tax burdens are in the bottom 15 states for population growth.

For your information, Michigan is number 45 in population growth between 2000 and 2007 (1.3%), and has the 14th highest tax burden in the United States. That was calculated before last year’s gigantic tax hike, so I’m sure our state has climbed up the list since then.

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