And Missouri too

Once again:  thanks, Illinois for driving your high earners and entrepreneurs into our arms.  We love it.

Mitch Daniels, Republican of Governor of Indiana and prospective presidential candidate, is having some fun with proposed tax increases in neighboring Illinois, as reflected in Daniels' interview with The Northwest Indiana Times (h/t Illinois Review):

Gov. Mitch Daniels thinks Illinois' proposed 75 percent hike in its corporate and personal income tax rates will be great -- for Indiana.

In an exclusive interview Friday with The Times, the Republican governor said he looks forward to welcoming to the Hoosier State any Illinois business or resident that wants to pay less in taxes.

"We already had an edge on Illinois in terms of the cost of doing business, and this is going to make it significantly wider," Daniels said.

Illinois lawmakers are poised to vote next week on a plan that will raise the state's personal income tax rate to 5.25 percent from 3 percent, hike the corporate income and personal property replacement tax rates to a combined 10.9 percent and add an extra tax of $1 per pack of cigarettes. The income tax hikes would be retroactive to Jan. 1 and be reduced after four years.

Hoosiers pay a 3.4 personal income tax rate, while Indiana's corporate income tax rate is 8.5 percent.

Of course, Democrats have a solution to losing businesses to lower-tax red states - raise taxes everywhere via cap-and-trade, Obamacare, and a host of environmental and other regulations.  That way, businesses will have nowhere to go.  

(Psst, there's always China or going out of business, braniacs.)