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ALEC reports on the “State of the States”

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) has reviewed the 2015 “State of the State” addresses of the fifty U.S. state governors. According to ALEC, tax relief and reform was a common trend.   The following are key excerpts:

“More governors focused on reducing the tax burden of their citizens as a path to growth than those who claimed more taxes and spending would improve their state’s economy. While some governors did support raising taxes and fees, many of these were small increases targeted at addressing a specific expense in the state. It appears most governors have learned the lesson that they are in constant competition with other states for jobs and capital. In order to keep their state economically competitive, they must make tax cuts a continuing priority, while keeping tax increases at a minimum… Generally, states with lower tax burdens, less regulations, and responsible levels of spending outperform other states…

“[T]ax cuts were proposed by more governors in their state-of-the-state addresses this year than those who proposed tax increases. Regarding those states with some combination of both, there was significant variation. Many states called for lowering some taxes, such as income taxes, or property taxes, but then proposed taxes on particular products, most notably gasoline taxes and cigarette taxes. Other governors called for fundamental tax reform, such as Governor Paul LePage in Maine, whose bold plan to eliminate the personal income tax over the coming years also relied on increasing the state’s sales tax, a plan that will be a significant benefit to the state. Another trend was the effort in many states to reduce or eliminate the income tax, and instead rely on other forms of revenue to fund the state budget. Governors Paul LePage in Maine and Sam Brownback in Kansas spoke about the need to lower income taxes and work towards phasing them out entirely. Currently, nine states have no income tax, but these two could join them in the coming years if these governors are able to follow through on their plans…
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“[T]he nine states that do not levy a personal income tax experienced a cumulative job growth rate of 9.9 percent from 2003 to 2013 while the nine states with the highest personal income tax rates experienced less than half of that at just 4.3 percent over the same time period. The no income tax states also experienced much better rates of net domestic migration, personal income growth, and gross state product growth than their high tax counterparts. While there was a lot of good news for taxpayers in this year’s state-of-the-state addresses, there were some proposals that would increase taxes and fees. The most common tax hike proposals were calls to raise transportation-related charges, including gas taxes and vehicle fees. These were typically sold as necessary to fund roads and infrastructure. The map below shows which governors proposed raising gas taxes and vehicle fees. While there was a lot of good news for taxpayers in this year’s state-of-the-state addresses, there were some proposals that would increase taxes and fees. The most common tax hike proposals were calls to raise transportation-related charges, including gas taxes and vehicle fees. These were typically sold as necessary to fund roads and infrastructure. In addition to gas taxes, cigarette tax increases were also proposed be a few governors. Governor Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire and Bill Bentley of Alabama proposed raising cigarette taxes to increase revenue.

“Tax policy wasn’t the only common theme in this year’s state-of-the-state addresses. Several governors spoke about the importance of balancing the state budget. Indiana Governor Mike Pence went as far as to call for a new state constitutional amendment that would require the state to pass a balanced budget every year. Other governors pledged to balance their budgets for the coming year and others discussed the need to constrain budget growth. While 49 states already have some form of balanced budget requirement, it is encouraging to see so many governors take the time to discuss the value of not spending more than the state collects in revenue and avoiding large debt obligations. In order to improve their budget situation, many governors announced new proposals to reduce the cost of government. Several governors called for finding new ways to operate state government more efficiently through consolidating agencies, creating new agencies dedicated to finding cost-saving strategies in government, or even asking the public for their suggestions on how the state government could save money. A few governors called for improved budget transparency by making information about the cost of government more easily available to citizens, a policy that will hopefully lead to a reduction in waste, fraud, and abuse in the coming years. Finally, many governors discussed the need for pension reform. The public pension system is a significant unfunded liability for many states.

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Ranking the States

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) has released its annual ranking of the fifty states.

According to ALEC, “The 2015 economic outlook ranking is a forward-looking measure of how each state can expect to perform economically based on 15 policy areas that have proven, over time, to be the best determinants of economic success.”

The five states with the best prospects are Utah, North Dakota, Indiana, North Carolina and Arizona. The five with the worst prospects are Oregon, New Jersey, Connecticut,  Minnesota,  Vermont and New York.

From best to worst, here are ALEC’s state rankings:

1 Utah 2 North Dakota 3 Indiana 4 North Carolina 5 Arizona 6 Idaho 7 Georgia 8 Wyoming 9 South Dakota 10 Nevada 11 Texas 12 Virginia 13 Wisconsin 14 Alaska 15 Florida 16 Oklahoma 17 Tennessee 18 Kansas 19 Alabama 20 Mississippi 21 Colorado 22 Arkansas 23 Ohio 24 Michigan 25 Iowa 26 Louisiana 27 Missouri 28 Massachusetts 29 New Hampshire 30 Kentucky 31 Nebraska 32 South Carolina 33 Maryland 34 New Mexico 35 Washington 36 West Virginia 37 Hawaii 38 Delaware 39 Rhode Island 40 Illinois 41 Pennsylvania 42 Maine 43 Montana 44 California 45 Oregon 46 New Jersey 47 Connecticut 48 Minnesota 49 Vermont 50 New York

The policy areas include the top marginal personal income tax rate, top marginal corporate income tax rate, personal income tax progressivity, property tax burden, sales tax burden, remaining tax burden, existence of estate/inheritance taxes, recently legislated tax changes, debt service as a share of tax revenue, public employees per 10,000 of population, state liability system survey, state minimum wage, average workers’ compensation costs, right to work legislation, and the number of tax expenditure limits.

CNN Money http://money.cnn.com/interactive/economy/state-unemployment-rates/ compared unemployment ratings in the states.  From best to worst:

     
1 NORTH DAKOTA
2 NEBRASKA
2 UTAH
4 SOUTH DAKOTA
4 VERMONT
6 HAWAII
6 NEW HAMPSHIRE
6 WYOMING
9 IOWA
9 MINNESOTA
11 MONTANA
11 OKLAHOMA
13 IDAHO
14 KANSAS
15 TEXAS
16 COLORADO
17 LOUISIANA
17 VIRGINIA
19 MAINE
20 MASSACHUSETTS
20 WASHINGTON
22 OHIO
22 PENNSYLVANIA
22 SOUTH CAROLINA
25 WISCONSIN
26 INDIANA
27 MARYLAND
28 ARKANSAS
28 DELAWARE
28 FLORIDA
31 WEST VIRGINIA
32 ALASKA
32 MISSOURI
32 NEW JERSEY
32 NORTH CAROLINA
36 CONNECTICUT
36 NEW MEXICO
36 NEW YORK
39 ILLINOIS
40 OREGON
41 ALABAMA
41 ARIZONA
43 TENNESSEE
44 CALIFORNIA
44 DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
44 KENTUCKY
47 MICHIGAN
47 NEVADA
47 RHODE ISLAND
50 GEORGIA
51 MISSISSIPPI

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