Letter to The New York Times, December 31

To the Editor:

On the very week the census told us that over the past decade there was a mass migration of Americans out of high-tax states and into low-tax ones, you call for an increase in state taxation. The people you want to tax can and do vote with their feet, rendering higher taxation a far from optimal solution.

Nevertheless I will grant you that taxation should not be off the table when dealing with the fiscal crisis that is enveloping most of the states.

But unless the bottomless pit of public employee pension and post-retirement health benefits is dealt with, no amount of higher taxation will be able to solve the problem.

David Shulman

Full URL:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/31/opinion/l31states.html?_r=1&ref=opinion