Washington's favorite quick solution to deficit spending is to tax the rich.

I want to share a little story with you...a cautionary tale.

Back in 2004, Ken and I were still doing a show for CNN called "Dolans Unscripted."

The show was doing well and so, as our contract was nearing completion, we were offered another one for the following year.

CNN didn't know it, but we had just finished a rousing fight with the taxing authority of New York State regarding our non-resident status. You see, we were commuting to New York from our Florida home where we were and still are residents.

Because we came up on Wednesdays to work and returned home Saturday afternoons, we did not meet the 183 days in a state rule to have to pay state and NY City taxes as residents. We paid as non-residents, which is a slightly lower tax rate for the city.

NY disagreed. After admitting in writing that they agreed we were not in the state 183 days (which, silly us, made us think we'd won the fight) they pulled a new card out of their sleeve...they claimed that since our employer was based in New York, we could not escape the higher tax rate!

It was at that moment, as I wrote a $50,000 check for NY taxes that I turned to Ken and said, "I will never work in this state again. Let's go home to Florida."

Long story short, we turned down the contract, quit CNN and went home bag and baggage.

So I was not surprised to read that a new study by the Empire Center for New York State Policy shows that middle class people are leaving the state in droves.

The study shows that from 2000 to 2008 New York state lost more than 1.5 million residents. The biggest group came from New York City. This outflow translates into annual net income loss of $30 billion.

Is it any wonder the state is on track to show a budget shortfall of as much as $10 billion by the end of the year?

And if the bulk of these defections came from middle class earners, like us, a new "millionaire's tax" on earnings of more than $300,000 will continue the decline.

Now the truly rich are starting to join the wagon trains heading west, east and south. Billionaire Tom Golisano, who ran for governor on a couple of occasions, is now residing in southwest Florida. Rush Limbaugh pulled up stakes and is no longer maintaining an apartment in NYC. And these are just two of the state's more prominent taxpayers.

The idea that taxing the "rich" is a fix for state-or national-fiscal woes is baloney.

There's an insidious tax worm in the Big Apple and it's headed to apples near you.