Slightly more than one-third of Louisianans say they’d move to another state if the opportunity arose, according to a recent Gallup survey, which suggests a relatively high tax burden may be to blame.
The survey found a correlation between a state’s aggregated state tax burden—or its combined income, sales and property tax rates—and a desire to leave by residents. People living in states with a high aggregated state tax burden, based on data by The Tax Foundation, are more likely to say they would permanently leave their state if the opportunity arose, according to Gallup.
“States with growing populations typically have strong advantages, which include growing economies and a larger tax base,” Gallup reports. “Gallup data indicate that states with the highest state tax burden may be vulnerable to migration out of the state, putting them in jeopardy of missing out on some of these advantages.”
Louisiana isn’t among states with the most residents expressing a desire to leave, but it’s also not among the group of states with the least. According to the survey, 34% of Louisiana residents say they would permanently leave if the opportunity presented itself.
Gallup arranged states into five quintiles, with 10 states in each, based on their 2015 tax scores. States in the first quintile represent those with the lowest tax burdens, and many of them had some of the lowest percentages of residents who say they’d like to move out of state, including Montana, which had the lowest at 13%. Oregon is also in the first quintile and just 17% of its residents said they’d like to move.
Conversely, states in the fifth quintile—those with highest tax burden—are among those with the highest share of residents who’d like to move, including New Jersey and Connecticut, where 46% of residents expressed a desire to leave.
Louisiana is included in the fourth quintile for tax burden, a group of 10 states with the second highest aggregate tax burdens. The results are based on a 50-state poll conducted March 30 through Dec. 22 with 500 respondent in every state.
