San Francisco has gained $300 million in IRS tax revenue from people moving to The City from New York County, New York, or New York City, since 1992. And it’s added $250.1 million from Cook County, IL, the county seat that’s also the Chicago Metropolitan Area. That’s a total of $540 million.
That’s the stunning statistic released in a website called How Money Walks, and by Travis H. Brown. The website graphically displays data collected by the IRS since 1992, and produced in an annual report by the government organization that shows where wealth is flowing.
Generally, from my analysis of urban data for the San Francisco Public Works Department as part of a study on African Americans in San Francisco from 1960 to 1990, people generally move from county to a nearby county in a region. But in San Francisco’s case, it’s second largest draw was not from a Bay Area County, but from New York, NY – and to the tune of, as of this writing, $288.99 million. Here’s the overall breakdown:
Gained Wealth From:
$704.02 million Santa Clara County, CA
$288.99 million New York County, NY
$250.98 million Cook County, IL
$118.69 million Suffolk County, MA
$117.76 million Middlesex County, MA
Note that of the majority of counties, only one of them was in the San Francisco Bay Area: Santa Clara County, CA. The rest were from New York, Chicago (Cook County), and Suffolk County and Middlesex County in Massachusetts.
San Francisco, predictably, lost wealth to the following Bay Area Counties:
Lost Wealth To:
$2.13 billion San Mateo County, CA
$1.59 billion Marin County, CA
$1.56 billion Alameda County, CA
$1.01 billion Contra Costa County, CA
$355.03 million Sonoma County, CA
Overall, San Francisco has been a net wealth loser; that’s due to its high cost of living which offsets its highly attractive lands that draws tourists from around the World. It’s lost $5.62 billion over the period, and has lost over $6,760 of adjusted gross income in the last 11 minutes, alone.
But it’s clear the bi-coastal relationship between San Francisco and New York and the Eastern Seaboard has been a winner for San Francisco. For any county to have this kind of relationship with another one 3,000 miles away is unusual and fascinating.
Check out the site here: http://www.howmoneywalks.com/irs-tax-migration/