Those famous lyrics from Billy Joel's classic, Movin' Out, couldn't be ringing any more true for New Jerseyans these days.

A story in Investor's Business Daily The New Jersey Exit, lays out the gory details. New Jersey's suppressive tax climate is simply pushing our best and brightest out the door - to the tune of $70 BILLION in lost wealth over the past 4 years.

Fiscal Policy: Too many of those pain-in-the-neck productive people living in your state, making everyone else look bad? Want to get rid of them? Let the Garden State show you how it's done through the tax code.

At one time in the not-too-distant past, New Jersey was by some measures the wealthiest state in the country. No more. Wealth is fleeing at an alarming rate. Between 2004 and 2008, more than $70 billion in wealth headed for the exit, according to a new study by Boston College's Center on Wealth and Philanthropy.

Worse, it's not being replaced. Though more people moved into the state than moved out during the period of the study, the net worth of the people who fled was, at $618,300, 70% higher. Those who left also tended to be better educated, more entrepreneurial and more professional.

The problem isn't New Jersey's cold winters. The productive are leaving for states where the climate is more favorable. Increases in levies on income, sales, property and millionaires have all contributed to the exodus.

This, of course, should be a lesson for lawmakers everywhere: Keep taxes low. If you don't, the wealthiest among us, who tend to be the most productive, will find more favorable places to put talents and energy to work.

Read the entire article here.

Read the Boston College Study over at our Liberty Library: Migration of Wealth in New Jersey and the Impact on Wealth and Philanthropy.