Michigan lost $2.5 billion in income from 2007 to 2008 as people migrated out of the state, trailing only California ($4 billion) and New York ($2.52 billion) in lost income, according to a calculation by The Tax Foundation.
The Tax Foundation, a non-profit, non-partisan educational organization in Washington D.C., provides a "migration calculator" that can track where people are moving and taking their paychecks with them.
The data comes from the IRS and its Statistics of Income division, according to The Tax Foundation. The migration data uses IRS tax returns from each year and includes social security numbers. That allows the IRS to track movement of taxpayers as well as income.
The calculation also shows that the top ten states hit the hardest in terms of gross lost income were all forced-unionization states. Yet, nine of the 12 states that showed the largest growth in income were right-to-work states. The National Right To Work Legal Defense Foundation defines states as right-to-work if the law guarantees that no person can be forced, as a condition of employment, to join or not to join, nor to pay dues to a labor union.
"This just says workers and all Americans are voting with their feet for states that respect the worker's freedom not to join and pay dues to union officials just to keep their jobs," said Patrick Semmens, the director of legal information at the National Right To Work Legal Defense Foundation. "Americans want to work to get paid not to pay union bosses to get work."
Southern states were the biggest winners in attracting income. Florida had the biggest increase with $4.5 billion in added income and Texas was second at $2.8 billion.
"These results show that right-to-work is a great attraction to employers, and with that, good paying jobs," wrote Paul Kersey, director of the labor policy at the Mackinac Center For Public Policy, in an e-mail. "It's time we faced up to the fact that the union movement in Michigan has become a destructive force badly in need of accountability and discipline. Right-to-work is the best way to make unions accountable to the workers they exist to represent."
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See also:
Can Michigan Become a Right-to-Work State?
Two GOP Reps Help Dems Dump Right-to-Work
Union PAC Money and Michigan's Members of Congress
Critics Say Congressman McCotter Supports "Bailout" of Union Pensions
Michigan Is Tops for Toughest Job Search
Strings May Be Attached When a Politician Has the Union Label
Lawmakers ask Congress to approve check card
Tight security locked out dozens of anti-right-to-work protesters from the State Capitol as Governor Snyder was delivering his "State of the State" address. Protesters tried to disrupt the speech by banging and chanting outside the building.
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FROM MICHIGAN HOME HELP PROGRAM PROVIDERS — OFTEN FAMILY MEMBERS
ATTORNEY GENERAL ORDERED THE STATE TO STOP TAKING MONEY ON MAY 25, 2012
opinion May 25, 2012
The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) "organized” Michigan's self-employed Home Help Program providers for the purpose of skimming dues from their ailing and disabled clients' Medicaid subsidy checks. The majority of these providers are relatives or friends taking care of loved ones. It’s been estimated that less than 25 percent of the providers are hired in an employment setting.
The first counter tallies SEIU dues skimmed since the union and state officials first launched this scheme in late 2006. The second shows the amount skimmed since June 9, 2011, when the Michigan House passed and sent to the Senate a bill to ban this and all similar “stealth unionization” efforts. The third counter shows the dues skimmed since the Governor signed the bill into law on April 10, 2012. The fourth counter shows the amount skimmed since May 25, 2012, when the Attorney General opinion was announced.
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