Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Cato: Abolish state income tax

From Richard W. Rahn, senior fellow at the Cato Institute and chairman of the Institute for Global Economic Growth. I wish Ohio legislators would read this!

Did you know there are nine states that have no state income tax? The non-income-tax states (see accompanying chart) are geographically and economically diverse, ranging from the state of Washington in the Pacific Northwest, to Texas and Florida in the South, and up to New Hampshire in the Northeast.

Why is it that some of the states with the biggest fiscal problems have the highest individual state income tax rates, such as New York and California, while some of the states with the least fiscal problems have no state income tax at all? High-tax advocates will argue that the high-tax states provide much more and better state services, but the empirical evidence does not support the assertion.

read more....

2 comments:

Hooda Thunkit (Dave Zawodny) said...

Maggie,

Excellent post!

"I wish Ohio legislators would read this!"

I do have to take exception to the above statement though as I question our legislator's ability to effectively read and comprehend such complex issues. . .

;-)

Kadim said...

I agree with CATO though Florida's taxes for middle class people are about the same as they are in Ohio.

Florida is going through a budget crisis at the moment, and their solution is to nickel and dime people.

A Florida car title (new/replacement/lien dropped) costs a whopping $75, plus an extra $2 if you want it on paper.

I'll be curious to see what Texas and Florida do in the next couple years about their budget problems.

I think Texas will end up adopting an income tax in the long-run. If Ohio could move in the opposite direction that would be pretty nifty.

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