Rich Californians stay put

The idea that high taxes are driving the very wealthy out of the state never made much sense and now there's an analysis from the San Jose Mercury News that concludes as much. It's not just California - other states with high tax rates, such as NY and NJ, are still home to the highest number of rich people per capita. The issue is being raised again as a result of Gov. Brown's Proposition 30, which would raise the income tax on single filers earning at least $250,000 and joint filers earning $500,000.

Over the past 15 years, California has maintained the same share of the nation's ultrarich, even after voters passed the state's first "millionaires' tax" in 2004. That echoes the experience documented in studies of other states that have raised taxes on the wealthy. "There just isn't any persuasive evidence out there to make you think that there would be a significant number of Californians moving because of this tax change," said Carl Davis, senior policy analyst at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a nonpartisan research group based in Washington D.C.