[Andrew Cuomo] "Tax the rich! tax the rich! tax the rich! WE DID!! now . . . the rich leave."

again, it is unfortunate "effect" that the law "will hit blue states," i.e., rich/wealthy urban states, "harder than red states," i.e., poorer/less wealthy rural states. Here we see the neutrality of justification inherent in the tax law's purpose: "spread the wealth."

"Blue states were already paying, as we agree, more than their per capita share." But isn't this the case for ALL taxation schemes? there is not a single tax for all social levels, i.e., "equality of treatment." It is difficult to see how this could be otherwise. Even if the impact is not neutral in its effect: "it sucks to be taxed."

"The new bill seems to increase that imbalance, whether we think the original imbalance was justifiable or not." I take it that all calls to raise taxation levels will increase an imbalance between the have-nots who are taxed at a comparatively low level, and the haves who are taxed at increasingly high levels. There is nothing necessarily surprising or inherently unjust about this. "Soak the rich!!"

"It's never been clear to me (other than the politics of spite) why we would need to further tilt the playing field." ahhh, but here it is you who is inferring a hidden cause "the politics of spite" that leads to an unwanted (from your perspective) outcome of "tilting the playing field." Perhaps you need to look at it from another angle.

A less cynical view might simply infer the new tax law seeks to redress the past wrongs of rich states staying richer while poorer states stay poorer. All while using "the hidden hand of government" as its angel of deliverance.

 

again, the fact that a policy choice imposes a cost on one's opponents is a happy side effect, not necessarily the cause, goal, or purpose.

 

Massachusetts trying to pass a "millionaire's tax." I'm sure millionaires love living in Massachusetts so much that this will actually inspire more millionaires to move to Massachusetts.

https://hotair.com/archives/2019/04/12/ma-rolls-literal-millionaires-tax/