It’s almost disappointing to see backers of Michigan’s Millionaires Tax fail in their bid to get the measure on the November ballot.

It would have been good to have the debate about the wisdom of this progressive eat-the-rich dream, and then finally put it to rest at the ballot box.

Even better would have been seeing the advertising campaign that was bound to come from opponents starring New York Gov. Kathy Hochul begging the state’s big bucks ex-pats to come back home and submit themselves to outrageous taxes.

Michigan’s Invest in MI Kids ballot initiative was withdrawn last week for lack of progress in gathering signatures. It sought to bring Big Apple-style taxation to the Wolverine state. Patterned after similar policies in California, Massachusetts and other Democratic-run states, the proposal sought to levy a 5% surcharge on individual incomes above $500,000 a year ($1 million for joint filers).

It would have more than doubled the state’s 4.25% flat tax rate for top earners and made Michigan the seventh-highest taxing state in the nation. More damaging, it would have cracked the ice on replacing Michigan’s current reasonable flat tax with a progressive rate that inevitably would expand to touch all taxpayers.

A progressive tax code has been Goal No. 1 of liberals in this state for decades.

If it ever passes, it will decimate small businesses and farmers. And it likely would have been approved had it gotten on the ballot. How could voters resist a proposal that promises to take money from the wealthy and funnel it to children in public school classrooms? The rich can afford to pay more, can’t they?

That’s the pitch Washington State made in passing its own 9.9% millionaires tax earlier this month. Taxpayers were assured that warnings the surcharge would drive away Seattle’s tech billionaires were an overblown scare tactic, not supported by the experiences of other states that are soaking the rich.

Already, that decision is biting Washington in the backside. Seattle hopes to land an NBA franchise, but players are balking at having to pay the millionaires’ tax.

Too bad Washington didn’t talk to Hochul, who last week begged former Empire State high rollers to come home from zero-income tax places like Florida and Texas so she can tax them “to support the generous social programs that we want to have in our state.”

Even in the rare instance when progressives admit to the damage done by their tax policies, the solution they offer isn’t to cut taxes. Instead, the governor urged rich New Yorkers to go to Palm Beach, Florida and “see who you can bring back home, because our tax base has been eroded.”

Hochul’s reflections on tax policy comes as socialist New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani is seeking a massive new death tax that would fall heavily on middle class homeowners.

The governor wasn’t done with her epiphany. “Wall Street businesses looking at Texas” are moving due to taxes, Hochul confessed.

Her tacit admission that, just as Arthur Laffer demonstrated with his famous curve, punitive tax rates ultimately produce less revenue would have been good for Washington State lawmakers to have heard before casting their self-destructive choice.

And it’s a lesson hopefully Michigan won’t have to learn the hard way.

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