I’ll explain why Gavin Newsom’s claim that “Texas and Florida are the REAL high-tax states” doesn’t hold up, show the numbers fact-checkers used to debunk him, compare the primary tax categories that matter to families and businesses, and note the political implications for California’s future without repeating the source links or author credits.
California has been bleeding residents for years, and you can see that in everyday signs like U-Haul pricing. When it costs more to rent a truck from California to Texas or Florida than the reverse, that’s a market signal: more people are leaving than coming. That migration isn’t random; it’s driven by taxes, cost of living, and general quality-of-life issues that matter to families and small business owners.
Enter Governor Gavin Newsom, who recently stood on a stage in Austin and made a bold claim about tax burdens. He argued that California’s fiscal system is more progressive and that Texas and Florida somehow saddle their middle class with heavier taxes. Those remarks provoked pushback across the political spectrum, including from critics in Florida and Texas and from independent researchers who did the math.
“Texas and Florida are the REAL high-tax states,” Newsom recently posted on X, explaining onstage at SXSW in Austin, Texas that California has the most “progressive tax rates in America” while taking shots at the tax burden in Florida and Texas.
“Your middle class pays more taxes in Texas than our middle class in California,” Newsom said in Texas. “It’s a great mythology, it’s just ‘the richest of the rich come here because they can avoid paying a damn penny.'”
That is a strong rhetorical claim, and strong rhetoric needs stronger numbers. Just Facts, a fact-checking organization, dug into multiple measures to test the claim. They didn’t rely on slogans or political spin; they compared per-person tax collections and tax collections relative to each state’s overall economy. Those two lenses give very different but complementary views of fiscal pressure.
The comments drew pushback from conservatives on social media, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and from Just Facts President James Agresti, who says he looked into a “number of different angles” to determine the “validity” of Newsom’s claims.
“I looked at how much is each state taxing each of its citizens on average? So if you look at California, they collect about $10,000 a year in taxes for every person in the state, whereas the figures for Texas and Florida are only about $5,000, or about half as much,” Agresti told Fox News Digital.
“However, California is a higher-income state, so I also looked at it as a percentage of the states’ economies and what I found is that California taxes about 14% of its economy, as opposed to 9% for Texas and Florida.”
Put bluntly, California collects a lot more tax revenue per resident and takes a bigger bite out of its economy than Texas and Florida do. Those are hard numbers people can check and feel in their wallets. If your state is extracting roughly double the tax dollars per person, that difference shows up in housing affordability, business formation, and migration patterns.
Just Facts broke the tax picture down even further to show where California is heavier on taxes. The state retains some of the highest top income tax rates, levies higher statewide sales taxes, and charges far more in gasoline taxes. These aren’t abstract metrics; they translate directly into monthly family budgets and business operating costs.
Just Facts broke those taxes down in a recent study and found that California imposes some of the highest taxes in the nation, with a top personal income tax rate of 13.3%, while both Texas and Florida have no state income tax.
Property taxes in California account for about 2.8% of personal income, slightly lower than Texas at 3.6% and close to Florida’s 2.6%, though measured as a share of home values, California’s rates are generally lower than both states, but in other tax areas, California is largely more burdensome.
The state’s unemployment insurance tax rate matches Texas at 6.2%, but is higher than Florida’s 5.4%. California also has a higher statewide sales tax at 7.2%, compared to 6.2% in Texas and 6.0% in Florida. Drivers in California face significantly higher gas taxes as well, paying 70.9 cents per gallon, more than triple Texas’ 20 cents and well above Florida’s 40.3 cents.
Those line-item comparisons matter. No income tax in Texas or Florida shifts the tax mix, and higher gasoline and sales taxes in California increase the day-to-day cost of living. For families and entrepreneurs who count every dollar, these differences push decisions about where to live and where to start or expand a business.
Politically, this matters for Republicans in California. The state has trended Democratic for decades, but fiscal realities create openings for a message that connects with working families and small business owners. Winning in a state where the dominant narrative is shaped by coastal elites requires clear, relatable arguments about pocketbook issues—and the numbers back the case against Newsom’s framing.
Gavin Newsom will keep making high-profile claims; that’s his style. But when you compare statements to publicly measurable tax collections and rates, the story people actually live looks different than his rhetoric. Voters notice which policies raise costs and which ones make life more affordable, and that will shape decisions long after any talking point leaves the stage.
Add comment