Loose Ends (37)

• Blue state exodus rolls on: AllianceBernstein, a substantial investment manager, has announced that it will move almost its entire New York staff to Nashville, Tennessee. Did I mention that Tennessee has no state income tax? Well, the Wall Street Journal story sure does mention it:

In a memo to employees, AllianceBernstein cited lower state, city and property taxes compared with the New York metropolitan area among the reasons for the relocation. Nashville’s affordable cost of living, shorter commutes and ability to draw talent were other factors. . .

Wall Street’s migration began after the last financial crisis as banks and money managers looked to trim expenses or take advantage of lower tax rates. Hiring in lower-cost regions can mean millions of dollars in annual savings.

But here’s my favorite part of this story:

A new tax plan passed last year by Congress also reduced tax breaks that many in the New York region heavily lean on, such as the deductibility of mortgage interest and state and local tax deductions.

The reduction of SALT deductions is a dagger aimed at the heart of profligate liberal blue states. This is going to be fun to watch.

• Everyone knows that the cost of college has risen faster than health care and housing over the last generation, and for the same reason—excessive government regulation and involvement. Hence it is worth noting that for the seventh year in a row, Purdue University President Mitch Daniels has frozen tuition for Purdue, the only university in the nation that has held the line on tuition increases for such a long period. Rich Vedder explains what this means:

When he leaves Purdue’s presidency, tentatively planned for 2020 at age 71, the tuition level will be the same as it was when he took office at the beginning of 2013—over seven years earlier. Correcting for inflation, published tuition fees probably will have fallen a good 10 percent during the Daniels presidency. Since incomes are rising (albeit perhaps too slowly), the burden of becoming a Purdue Boilermaker has been steadily declining—in marked contrast to earlier in history.

I once estimated that it took a larger proportion of Indiana’s per capita income to pay Purdue’s tuition in 2012 than 73 years earlier in 1939, late in the Great Depression. Moreover, the tuition freeze does not consider an absolute dollar decline in room and board charges of attending Purdue. This is truly a remarkable achievement. . .

At the same time, Purdue has actually added tenure-track faculty positions. Moreover, Daniels made freezing tuition a central goal, rather than, more typically, tuition fees being a residual consideration—determined after a multiplicity of other (often expensive) goals were achieved.

Enrollments are up, especially for higher tuition fee foreign and non-Indiana domestic students, so average tuition revenues per student have probably increased a fair amount. The school is not undergoing a deficit-financed binge that is unsustainable.

Gee—I wonder why Daniels is so different from all other college presidents? Maybe that he was a former corporate CEO, and—eeeek—a Republican?

• While the enforcers of the cultural left are freaking out about Kanye West saying nice things about Trump (and also apparently tweeting approvingly of Tom Sowell), some Democrats are starting to worry that just running against Trump in November might not work all that well, especially with younger minority voters.  From the Washington Post today:

“Overusing Donald Trump with black millennials is not only not effective, it actually decreases their likelihood to turnout and vote,” says [Democratic operative Guy Cecil]. “For 70 percent of our black millennials in ad testing and online panels, the fact that Donald Trump won, that he was the reaction to the first black president, is a sign that the whole system is rigged against them, that in fact their vote doesn’t actually contain power.”

That means Democrats need to bring something new to the table.

How about Speaker Nancy Pelosi? There’s something new on the table!