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Moving from one state to another doesn’t just increase the number of people in that new state, it increases that state’s wealth as your money moves with you. Unfortunately for Mississippi, the state has been on the wrong side of that equation over the past two decades.
The website How Money Walks tracks that data. It looks at what states are gaining wealth – and who isn’t. It then goes further and looks at movement between counties.
From 1992 through 2019, Mississippi lost a little more than $530 million in annual adjusted gross income. Arkansas added $2.6 billion, Alabama gained $3.5 billion, and Tennessee gained almost $20 billion.
Of our neighbors, only Louisiana was also on the negative side. They lost nearly $10 billion – including more than $600 million – to Mississippi, largely benefiting Mississippi’s Coast counties. Overall, Mississippi lost $750 million to Texas, $510 million to Florida, $485 million to Alabama, and $280 million to Georgia.
We talk more in detail about the money that left Mississippi here.
To turn things around, Mississippi needs to continue to work on setting itself up as the most competitive state in the Southeast, from a regulatory and tax standpoint. As capital is brought in, job opportunities will appear, desirable neighborhoods will flourish, and your population can, once again, continue to grow.
By Russ Latino
MageeNews.com is an online news source serving Simpson and surrounding counties as well as the State of Mississippi.
