On Time.com yesterday Tim Padgett reported on the factors behind the first net outflow of population in Florida (ie. more people moving out of the state than into it) in 63 years.  Not surprisingly, a rising tax burden played a major role:

"It's difficult for the working middle class to justify living here," Mike Jones, president of the Palm Beach County Economic Council, conceded to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. "As much as they may love the sunshine, as you squeeze them out, they may find it in their best interests to move." [snip]

Homeowners, especially in Broward and Miami-Dade, have been falling out of their flip-flops in recent days as they open their preliminary property-tax notices to find increases of 15% or more. That's sizable in a low-income region where the median property-tax bill is already some $3,000, and it's doubly frustrating given that property values have slid by some 25% during Florida's housing bust. Residents have barely digested the recent news that their hurricane-insurance premiums, which can top $5,000 a year for most South Florida homes, will rise 10% a year for the next three years (vital, officials claim, for handling claims from the next big storm). And their public utility, Florida Power & Light (FPL), is lobbying the state for a 30% rate hike (vital, FPL execs insist, for upgrading infrastructure). "It all seems out of control to people here at the time when they can least absorb it," says Dr. Jose Valladares, president of the conservative Fair Property Tax for All in Miami-Dade.

A few thousand miles to the north in Michigan, Governor Jennifer Granholm is being pressured to follow the same disastrous formula:

A newly formed coalition of education, labor and social service agencies calling itself A Better Future for Michigan said this morning the state should reform its tax structure and raise nearly $3 billion a year in new revenue rather than relying on spending cuts to balance the budget.

The group proposes to increase taxes on business by $600 million, raise $1.65 billion by taxing "luxury items" such as entertainment and recreation (who knew going to the movies was a "luxury?"), and scoop up another $600 million by boosting the state income tax rate on high earners by more than 58% (from 4.35% to 6.9%).

Michigan is no stranger to population outflow: for eight consecutive years the state has seen more people leave than enter, representing an exodus of a staggering 465,000 residents. That's a lot of tax payers to say goodbye to.

Obvisously, Michigan has had a unique and unfortunate situation with the implosion of the US auto industry. But still, simply raising taxes on individuals and businesses will only compound the state's fiscal sickness, not serve as its cure.  What the state really needs is a nonpartisan panel of business experts to come in and provide a blueprint to help the state turn things around and start attracting people and businesses instead of driving them away.

Easier said than done, I know. But drastic circumstances call for drastic measures. There's no question that the political leaders in the state have failed to find ways to mitigate and/or reverse the state's decline, and it's hard to see how any new approaches could be much worse.