Low-tax states ramp up efforts to recruit unhappy SALT cap victims

The exodus from high-tax states is expected to accelerate throughout the coming months and years, and lower-tax states are welcoming both individuals and businesses with open arms.

There are a number of campaigns popping up in states like Florida – where there is no state income tax – targeting people in states like New York, New Jersey and Illinois, which were some of the areas hardest hit by a new $10,000 cap on state and local tax deductions.

Miami, for example, already has at least two separate campaigns targeting individuals and businesses in different high-tax cities.

Around April 15, Miami real estate development firm Codina Partners launched its “Unhappy New Yorkers” campaign. According to its website, “total savings” for people moving to Florida were $24,649 for someone with an income of $100,000; $49,509 for someone with an income of $200,000 and $235,197 for people with incomes of $1 million.

Armando Codina, executive chairman of Codina Partners, told FOX Business the firm also planned to launch similar campaigns targeting New Jersey and Connecticut.

The launch date was pegged to the tax deadline, which Armando called an “awakening day” for people who may have been upset about their tax bills.

And that was likely good timing. After people saw the concrete consequences of the tax changes to their annual obligations, experts told FOX Business “more and more” people were likely to consider leaving less favorable tax climes.

Meanwhile, the Miami Downtown Development Authority is targeting Chicago-area businesses in a push to up its credibility as the “Wall Street of the South.”

“There’s a great opportunity with the tax law changes,” Miami DDA Deputy Director Christina Crespi, told FOX Business on Tuesday.

Crespi added that they are in talks with a handful of different firms in Chicago that are interested in moving, while a similar initiative in New York drove “several different hedge funds” to the Sunshine State.

Data from the U.S. Census Bureau showed that while Florida received more movers than any other state last year, New York's outflows to the Sunshine State were the highest – 63,772 people. New York had the third-largest outflows of any state, with 452,580 people moving out within the past year.

In addition to Florida, Texas and Nevada are other states that people are relocating to, according to multiple financial advisers.

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New Jersey Rep. Josh Gottheimer was one of several lawmakers from states including New York, Illinois and California who took to Capitol Hill on Tuesday to air out their grievances against the new SALT cap. Gottheimer called the cap a “double-taxation grenade” that was “lobbed at New Jersey and other high-tax states” by so-called “moocher states.” The average SALT deduction claimed in Bergen County, New Jersey, was more than $24,700 before the implementation of the cap.

A handful of states have sued the Trump administration over the cap, a complaint the U.S. recently requested the court dismiss.