Multnomah County lost over $1 billion in income as high earners fled the area during the lockdowns, riots, and spikes in crime in the first year of the pandemic, according to a new report.
According to an analysis of data from the Internal Revenue Service by The Oregonian from income tax returns filed in 2020 and 2021, Multnomah County lost a net 14,257 tax filers and their dependents, many of whom were high earners who could do jobs remotely, resulting in a net income loss of over $1 billion.
Making matters worse was a revelation in 2022 that District Attorney Mike Schmidt is prosecuting less than half of all misdemeanor theft cases referred to his office by police.
According to the analysis, many who left Multnomah County in 2020 and 2021 moved to nearby suburbs, while some went out of state to places such as Spartanburg County in South Carolina, Kitsap County in Washington, and liberal strongholds such as Travis County in Texas, which contains Austin, as well as San Francisco.
The Oregonian noted that in the state, deaths outnumber births. That combined with the loss of income could result in cuts in government spending due to budget shortfalls as the state is heavily reliant on the high earners as a source of revenue due to Oregon’s personal income tax.