Income marker highest in state
By Beau Evans
Marin County tallied the highest median income among all counties in California in 2013, according to new figures released last week by the state’s Franchise Tax Board. In 2013, the county’s median income was $57,224 for individual tax returns and $133,389 for joint returns.
Marin has led the state in this category as far back as the tax board’s public archive goes—since 1999—and the latest data is the highest median-income mark the county has enjoyed during that entire period. Median income is computed to give a sense of how much income a typical taxpayer makes, and economists tend to view it as a barometer for how a local economy may be performing. Still, many analysts say the latest figures paint an incomplete picture.
“We have no idea about how wealthy households are,” said Robert Eyler, the executive director of the Marin Economic Forum. Income data collected in affluent cities in southern Marin disproportionately drive up the county’s overall median-income figure, he said. As a result, the data does not accurately represent the entire scope of the county’s motley regional economies, especially those in North and West Marin.
Vast disparities also exist within individual regions. In 2013, the United States Census Bureau recorded a median household income in Point Reyes Station of $40,000. But that figure was dwarfed by nearby Stinson Beach, which in the same year notched a $105,192 median-household income.
“That tells you how wide the disparities are,” Mr. Eyler said. “[Marin] acts as a suburb, as you will, of the larger Bay Area.”
What draws people to Marin, Mr. Eyler said, is the prospect of a desirable quality of life beyond, but not too far away from, the big city: good schools, rural character and a quick trip to the coast. Increasingly, Marin has become the domain of older, educated people who earn their incomes from high-paying jobs in San Francisco, and who—aside from pension receipts—do not generate income within the county itself.
Read Entire Article: Point Reyes Light
