There are many states that are tax advantaged and have desirable traits.
I think there are a few states that have no State Income tax: New Hampshire (no sales tax either), Delaware (No sales tax?), Nevada, Florida, parts of Texas. I moved from Maryland to Florida to avoid the 7.5% state tax I was paying.
Then there are other reasons to move to different states. My preferences were California or Florida. In Florida, you don't need to wear a wetsuit if you go in the water. California's water is a bit chilly until you get waaay south and I would have picked Huntington Beach/Long Beach.
If you have a Corporate Helicopter, you would have your corporation in New Jersey (I think), corporate aircraft like to be registered in Arizona for the tax benefits.
If I was going to do it over again, I'd move 65 miles east to the Bahamas and enjoy my 3% tax. 1.5% if your income is passive and you've retired.
There are a lot of New Yorkers, that is for sure. And many are blue-collar newly-rich people. People that bought a brownstone for $15k 30 years ago, worked 30 years for the same factory, sold their brownstone for $800k to a yuppie and retired to Florida, bought their Caddy and their gold necklace, but, maintained their frugal ways. The running joke around here is:
How do you ask a New Yorker for the time?
Pardon me, do you have the time or should I go fuck myself?
Another reason I moved here is that I was supposed to move to Barbados for a company, long story short, that fell through for a number of reasons and we decided to try and hire people. I lived right outside DC and you had other companies competing and pricing things rediculously to the point where employees were $60k versus $40k for equivalent people in Florida. The thought was, move to Florida, make it a desirable area, use that to attract the talent rather than the additional cash and get 3 employees for the price of two. That theory was sound, however, 13 days after moving, that guy wigged out and pretty much kicked two of us in the teeth.
Personally, I like it here a lot. Makes that trip in '86 during Spring Break where I told my then-girlfriend, I'm going to live in Florida seem almost prophetic. The true irony is that in '89, I almost bought a company that is 6 miles from where I currently live (and I moved here 10 years after that deal fell through).
There is a certain mystery behind whether you should do things that are the most tax advantaged, or just because you like an area. I never much liked the cold weather, my wife hated it more. That was another reason. The other thing that we got away with was that our house is 3x larger than the one we had in Maryland -- and with the savings in state income tax, this one costs us slightly less. That's a pretty strong statement.
And really, they're only rich assholes while you're not rich. haha