Sailing Away From High Taxes

Sen. John F'ing Kerry has a new multi-million dollar yacht, but don't look for it to be harbored in Massachusetts waters.  The taxes there are too high:

Sen. John Kerry, who has repeatedly voted to raise taxes while in Congress, dodged a whopping six-figure state tax bill on his new multimillion-dollar yacht by mooring her in Newport, R.I.

Isabel - Kerry’s luxe, 76-foot New Zealand-built Friendship sloop with an Edwardian-style, glossy varnished teak interior, two VIP main cabins and a pilothouse fitted with a wet bar and cold wine storage - was designed by Rhode Island boat designer Ted Fontaine.

But instead of berthing the vessel in Nantucket, where the senator summers with the missus, Teresa Heinz, Isabel’s hailing port is listed as “Newport” on her stern.

Could the reason be that the Ocean State repealed its Boat Sales and Use Tax back in 1993, making the tiny state to the south a haven - like the Cayman Islands, Bermuda and Nassau - for tax-skirting luxury yacht owners?

Cash-strapped Massachusetts still collects a 6.25 percent sales tax and an annual excise tax on yachts. Sources say Isabel sold for something in the neighborhood of $7 million, meaning Kerry saved approximately $437,500 in sales tax and an annual excise tax of about $70,000.

This is a classic example of why the "tax the rich" schemes Democrats love so much rarely generate the level of revenue promised: Rich people go somewhere else. High earners have been fleeing places like New York State and Massachusetts to lower tax states, and every time a new tax on wealth is imposed the pace of exodus increases. It's one thing for someone like Rush Limbaugh, who has no power to set tax policy, to decide to abandon high tax New York for no state taxes in Florida, but another thing altogether for a Senator who has used his power to vote on tax increases to dodge them this way. That's classic hypocrisy.