Tipsheet

Democrats Turn to Unconstitutional Exit Taxes After Their Policies Drove the Wealthy Out of Blue States

Amy Curtis
Amy Curtis  |  April 09, 2026 8:30 AM

Democrats believe all our money belongs to them. They believe they have the moral and legal authority to take the money we earn and redistribute it to their preferred constituencies, while ignoring (or even facilitating) massive fraud and enriching themselves in the process. 

With the news of massive fraud scandals in Minnesota and California, it's clear we don't have a revenue problem; we have a fraud problem, and we'd bet the majority of our deficit could be erased if we eliminated fraud. But Democrats don't have any interest in doing that. They just keep taxing people more and more to make up for their fiscal mismanagement. 

And when they raise taxes, the people who can afford to move from those blue states to tax-friendlier red states. That leaves the blue states with even more self-inflicted budget woes.

Rather than roll back wealth taxes, Democrats have decided to tax the people even more in the form of an exit tax, and that concept is gaining traction in blue states.

Here's more:

Across the country, at least ten states are now exploring or have already passed an exit or wealth tax in order to combat revenue losses from residents fleeing to lower tax areas. That includes California, New York, Washington, and Michigan.

You tally up the value of your home, your cars, your furniture, your assets, your stocks, your bonds, your art and there is a tax on that value,” Sandra Swirski, Founder & CEO of Integer told The National News Desk.


The value of these assets, your net worth, in some cases is very easy to calculate, stocks and bonds and alike. In other cases it's really difficult to calculate,” said Swirski.

Another state, Washington, who just passed a 9.9% tax on incomes over $1 million. dollars. The bill’s passage came around the same time Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, who has an estimated net worth of over $3 billion, announced his move to Florida.

While no court has ruled on such exit taxes yet, it's clear they're unconstitutional. They violate the Commerce Clause, which prohibits states from interfering with interstate commerce, and the right to travel between states. 

They also create issues of triple taxation, wherein a taxpayer is on the hook for old and new state taxes and a federal tax, which would create a "discriminatory impact" that the Supreme Court generally doesn't like.

Such taxes, when imposed by a state years after a resident has left are vulnerable to legal challenges, and even the European Union's Court of Justice has repeatedly struck down the notion of exit taxes.

That's exactly what it is.

Or else.

Don't give the Democrats any ideas.

"Wealth taxes" always, invariably, trickle down to the middle class. Because Democrats, like all good socialists, hate the middle class and will do anything to destroy it.

If Democratic policies were so good, people wouldn't have to leave. But much in the way Democrats bully their opponents into silence rather than debate issues, and much in the way they have to put their thumb on the scales in elections, Democrats have to force people to remain in their states.

It's not.

They just might be.

They never will. Not even when they get smacked down in court over this.