Low Florida taxes won the Miami Heat LeBron James, it seems.
One AOL blogger estimated the total 5-year cost for James to have chosen New York over Miami, considering endorsements, would have exceeded $25 million. Florida has the fourth lowest tax burden on citizens of any state while New York has the second highest.
The lesson? If you want the best talent in the world, let people keep what they earn. The world’s talent will flock to such places. This principle helped build our country. Too bad the President doesn’t see it that way.
In fact, Obama lobbied for LeBron to choose the Chicago Bulls. Obama could have helped the Bulls more by lobbying the Illinois legislature to eliminate the state income tax.
To keep from putting off Americans the President might have stayed out of it, not just because his endorsement once again failed to translate into success, but because Presidents have no business wading into such matters.
Texas has only the eighth lowest tax burden in the country. Striving to top this list would be a worthy use of our famous Texas-exceptionalism attitude.
