Regular Hotline readers will recall that last year when Amazon founder Jeff Bezos — one of the 10 richest people on the planet — announced that he was moving his residence from Washington to Florida, we strongly suspected that taxes were a major factor in that decision. Florida has no capital gains tax and Washington recently enacted its first-ever capital gains tax at 7%. We calculated that Bezos would save hundreds of millions of dollars, but he denied taxes were a consideration.

Now our friends at the news agency Center Square have confirmed that we were right. Bezos recently revealed that, yes, he will sell 50 million shares of Amazon stock through early 2025. The value of this stock is estimated at $10 billion. His tax savings by being a Florida resident: $600 million.

That’s money that will now be invested or spent in South Florida, not the Seattle area. We wonder how many more Seattle billionaires will follow in Bezos’ footsteps before the left admits there is a Laffer Curve – higher taxes can mean less revenue.

Welcome to Florida, Mr. Bezos.