I was down in Florida the other day communing with my many high-school friends who have moved there when I came upon yet another of those articles ranking New Jersey in the top tier of states from which people are moving.

As I read it, I was sitting in the house of a friend who has every reason to move his residency out of the reach of the New Jersey Division of Revenue.

The house in question has two bedrooms and is on a lake, one that comes with the alligator that seems to be de rigueur these days in Florida. Next door is the community clubhouse and pool.

The finest beaches in Florida are but a 10-minute drive away.

The cost of this crib? A mere $80,000 when my old high-school pal bought it two years ago.

That got me doing the math that so many Jerseyans do when they contemplate escaping the cold north for the Sunshine State.

My friend reported that the total cost of keeping up the house, including the club fees and taxes, is about $500 a month. That’s a mere $6,000 a year.

My friend pays several thousand more than that in New Jersey income taxes each year. But if he were to stay in his second home for six months and a day of every year, he could declare himself a resident of Florida, which has no income tax.

At that point he would be saving more in taxes than he is spending to buy his second home. He told me he will soon be meeting with his financial advisor to discuss that very issue.

That sort of thing is far from uncommon, said another financial adviser. Josh Jalinski, who has an office in Toms River, told me he meets many a wealthy senior citizen who is planning to make the switch to Florida residency.

“If you’re trying to soak the rich they’re just gonna move,” he said “They can afford a home in New Jersey for five months and then spend seven months in Florida.”

That’s becoming even more of a trend now that the deductibility of state and local taxes – SALT, for short – has been severely reduced under the Trump tax reform, he said. In the past, the residents of high-tax suburbs could take solace in the fact that Uncle Sam was picking up about a third of their SALT. No more.

“That’s a huge loss of deductibility,” said Jalinski. “That may be even more of an impetus to move.”

Then there’s that extension of the so-called “millionaire’s tax” that Gov. Phil Murphy has proposed for the next state budget. That would give the wealthy even more incentive to head for the exits, he said.

Fortunately that tax hike is dead on arrival in the Legislature. But if we’re going to be making changes in the tax code, Jalinski said, we should talk about getting rid of the so-called “pension cliff.”

Back in 2017, when the gas-tax hike was passed, part of the package called for pension income under $100,000 annually to be excluded from the state income tax.

So far, so good. But the framers built in a cliff. If you earn just one dollar over that amount, then the entire $100,000 becomes taxable.

State Sen. Declan O’Scanlon said he and his fellow Republicans had to accept the pension cliff if they wanted the tax cut.

“When we were making the policy, there were those of us advocating for the tax cuts and we were happy to get that,” the Monmouth Republican said. “But there’s no question it’s a flaw and should be addressed.”

There are plenty of towns in New Jersey where property taxes are so high that you need $100,000 in annual income just to get by, said Jalinski.

“If we change that law, that would stop a lot of people from moving,” said Jalinski.

That would be a good start. But we need to do a lot more than that if we want to keep people in the state.

I was reminded of that when I got back home and went to the recycling center. There I got talking to one of the many residents who drop off their recycling in cars with Florida plates.

“Heck, I changed my residency six years ago,” the guy said. “I bought a four-bedroom house on a golf course with the money I saved.”

Good for him. But bad for the governor.

Perhaps he could insert a line item in the budget to fund armed guards at the state line to keep people from heading south.

Or maybe he should start asking them why they’re going.

ADD - THE BIGGEST FLAW IN OUR TAX SYSTEM: A lot of people - including apparently our governor - are under the mistaken impression that the state income tax funds state government in the same way the federal income tax funds the federal government.

That is not the case. Our state income tax was adopted in 1976 as a 2 percent tax that would go entirely to property-tax relief. And it did in fact perform that function for the first few years.

But over the years the politicians kept raising the rate while decreasing the amount of property-tax relief that went to the suburbs. It’s entirely possible that despite paying hundreds of thousands in state income taxes a homeowner could also pay $200,000 in property taxes.

That homeowner is Phil Murphy, and he’s stuck here. But his neighbors down the Navesink a bit in Rumson are not stuck here. And O’Scanlon notes that plenty of them use their Florida residence as their official addresses. Murphy may think it’s fair for them to pay twice for property-tax relief. But they’ve decided they’re only paying once.

By comparison, if you live in North Carolina you pay a 5.5 percent income tax. But the state uses that money to pick up the tab for schools. So property taxes are so low than a $2,000 annual bill is considered excessive.

Our income tax provides more than enough money to fully fund our schools. But that’s not what the politicians want to do.

The voters can make up their own minds. And a lot of them are now voting from their Florida homes.