I am not generally supportive of higher taxes, but I have to acknowledge when people on my side of the political aisle present facts in a way that is distortionary.

Today I came across this Notthebee article, with this breathless headline,

Massachusetts Introduced Millionaire Tax In 2023, Immediately Lost $4.2 Billion In Income As People Fled The StateMassachusetts Introduced Millionaire Tax In 2023, Immediately Lost $4.2 Billion In Income As People Fled The State

It is actually a secondhand article of this one from Bloomberg. The following text is quoted in the NotTheBee article:

Residents exiting Massachusetts took a net of $4.2 billion in adjusted gross income with them in 2023, one of the largest totals in the country, after a tax on millionaires took effect.

The amount was an 8% year-over-year increase, according to Internal Revenue Service data, even as the total number of taxpayers leaving the state slowed.

This was the first year that residents were subject to a 4% surtax on incomes over $1 million after voters approved the levy in 2022 to fund schools and transportation.

Along with this chart:

Clearly, the article is meant to give the impression that the policy was a total failure.

But the picture is more mixed, as per the original Bloomberg article:

Supporters of the Massachusetts measure hail the more than $6 billion in revenue it’s brought to state coffers. Critics warn that it’s driving away entrepreneurs, even if Massachusetts lacks the high-profile departures seen in California, which is weighing a wealth tax, or Washington, which enacted a millionaire tax earlier this month.

Despite the tax’s implementation, the number of residents moving out of Massachusetts who reported income of $200,000 or more — the top bracket tracked in the IRS data — fell year-over-year. Net outflows from Massachusetts long predate the millionaires tax, especially to Florida and New Hampshire, its northern neighbor, which has no tax on wages or capital gains. Total lost income was also higher in 2021 than 2023.

The state’s millionaires-tax collections have increased every year since 2023 and so far in fiscal 2026 have jumped 19% year-over-year to $1.3 billion.

So, in terms increasing the state's tax revenues, the policy is actually working, and net outflows of upper middle class residents has been falling. Moreover, the exodus of millionaires preceded the implementation of the tax.

According to some metrics, then, the tax is actually achieving its intended purposes. Obviously, there may be long run consequences if the state becomes a bad environment to do/start business in, but we need to acknowledge the supporters' own metrics if we want to understand the full contours of the debate.

Anyway, I guess some people would say that NotTheBee is not a serious site to begin with. Fair enough, but a lot of people do get their news entirely from sites like this, and it annoys me when one-sided, unnuanced views get perpetuated, regardless of which political camp it's coming from.

_{P.S. One reason I am especially frustrated is because I almost shared this article from the perspective of "Ha Ha look how dumb Massachusetts is!" But I caught myself and decided to read the original Bloomberg article, and found that the full story is more nuanced.}