Taxpaying New Yorkers are leaving in droves for other states, according to a new study.
In 2014, 126,000 New York tax filers fled to other places in the United States — more than from any other state, according to the study posted on newgeography.com by two demographers.
The Empire State also lost the most “high earners,” who reported incomes of more than $200,000 a year.
“New York has been leading the nation in domestic migration for decades,” Wendell Cox, who co-authored the study, told the Albany Times Union.
While New York’s population is still growing, in part because of immigration, many residents are leaving for other states because of high property taxes, a lack of business opportunities and unaffordable homes, Cox said.
“The property taxes are bad, but they are on top of an even worse situation in terms of affordability,” he said.
In an interview Thursday with Post columnist Fredric U. Dicker on Albany radio, GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump trashed the upstate economy.
“Hillary [Clinton], when she was senator, said she would bring back your jobs,” Trump said.
“She did nothing. It was such lies. All these places are dying. It turned out to be a total lie. Jobs have fled. It’s death zones.”
Illinois lost the second-largest number of people to other states with 82,000 people moving elsewhere in 2014, followed by California, which saw 57,900 residents depart.
The Sun Belt states of Texas, Florida and South Carolina took in the most domestic migrants from other states.
Some critics questioned some of the numbers, including Fiscal Policy Institute Executive Director Ron Deutsch, who pointed to a Stanford University study that found that those who earn at least $1 million a year won’t move from high-tax states.
“There are many reasons people choose to leave New York state, just as there are many reasons people choose to come to New York state,” Deutsch insisted. “To suggest migration is based on high taxation is pure speculation.”
Gov. Cuomo spokesman Richard Azzopardi touted the state’s tax reforms and private-sector jobs.
“The fact is that under this administration, New York has a record number of private-sector jobs, unemployment below the national average, and passed reforms that led to the lowest middle-class taxes in 70 years, the lowest corporate tax rates since 1968 and the lowest manufacturing tax rate since 1917 and a property-tax cap,” Azzopardi said.
Additional reporting by Carl Campanile