Why don’t they just raise taxes?
They do, and they are caught in the Catch-22 that comes from raising taxes, thus driving away higher income residents, making it necessary to raise taxes... rinse, repeat.
I could care less, except that administrations like we have at present find a way to nationalize (federalize) the damage done in these states. Given what Biden just did in handing $$ to the Central States Pension Fund - it’s not too much of a reach for him to send emergency Covid Relief funds to IL to patch up their public employee pension shortfall. Just watch.