Tax Refugees Redux

An interesting Op-Ed in The Oregonian today that echoes the post I read yesterday decrying The Oregonian's use of the bogus boogeyman of the tax refugee. Today, Jon Roark, who has done real empirical work in the area (as opposed to drawing ridiculous conclusions from one statistic) refutes the idea of the tax refugee entirely:

The evidence shows Measure 84 won't affect whether people come and go from Oregon. If you still believe taxes matter more than anything else when choosing a place to call home, it may just be because you already live near your family without any snow. After all, if taxes were the dominant force, everyone would live in New Hampshire, where there are neither income nor sales taxes. Then again, it is cold there.

So let's put to rest this idea of the tax refugee and talk about the tax system and potential reform substantively.  And Oregonian editorial board, please contribute positively to this debate and don't help drag it into the muck where it will inevitably get stuck.