Critics of tax hikes on the wealthy point to anecdotes and years of concern about making the state unfriendly to high earners, some of whom may already be living in second homes outside the state amid the pandemic.

“There is evidence that people do leave because of taxes,” said Andrew Rein, president of the fiscally conservative think tank, the Citizens Budget Commission, though he cautioned that research on the topic is somewhat thin.

“There aren’t that many robust studies and they don’t correlate to where we are. I do think the risk is real.”