The Red State tax cut revolution is just getting going. The WSJ’s Stephen Moore writes:
After five years of wrenching fiscal deficits, states are once again experiencing stable budgets and healthy revenue growth. A new report by the American Legislative Exchange Council—a national network of more than 2,000 state legislators—finds that about one-third of the nation’s governors have cut taxes. “Some of these tax cuts,” says Jonathan Williams, the fiscal policy expert at ALEC, “also move in the direction of tax reform. Income tax rates are falling.”
This is especially true in states with Republican governors. Indiana Gov, Mike Pence signed a 10 percent income tax rate reduction. Tax rates also fell in North Carolina, a state that turned red after the 2012 elections. But even Arkansas passed a small income tax cut, which might have been larger had Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe allowed it. If Republicans win the governorship there in 2014, as expected, bigger income tax cuts are possible.
GOP Govs. Rick Scott of Florida, John Kasich of Ohio, and Scott Walker of Wisconsin all face tough re-election bids next year, and all three will tout their tax-cutting on the campaign trail. In Kansas, Sam Brownback continued to trim the state income tax with the eventual goal of eliminating it. “We want to be the most tax competitive state in the midwest,” Mr. Brownback tells me. “We’re not done bringing rates down.”