EditorIt is not surprising, nor is it really a coincidence that the majority of states with the tax burdens (on businesses, on retirees and on its citizens’ income), are also those states without Right-to-Work laws*.
Here is, according to the Tax Policy Foundation, the states that tax businesses the most (and the least).
* Of the 10 states with the highest taxes on business, only Wisconsin is a Right-to-Work state—and that state did not change its Right-to-Work status until early 2015.
Here is the list (from bad to worse):
41. Maryland
42. Ohio
43. Wisconsin
44. Connecticut
45. Rhode Island
46. Vermont
47. Minnesota
48. California
49. New York
50. New Jersey
Of course, the simplest explanation as to why there is a link between higher business tax burdens and the lack of Right-to-Work laws is the general make up of state government and the power of unions in those states.
ALthough, New Jersey—the worst of all 50 states—has a Republican governor, for example, the state legislature is so heavily dominated by tax-the-rich, union-aligned Democrats that there is slim chance that the state will ever become a Right-to-Work state or have any substantive tax reform to help businesses or its citizens by lowering their tax burdens.
Not surprisingly, several of the states that have the highest business taxes also tax their retirees the most as well, according to this Kiplinger map.
According to Bankrate.com, most* of the states with the highest income taxes on their “upper-middle class” citizens also (coincidentally) lack Right-to-Work laws.
41. Washington, DC — 8.5%
42. Maine — 8.5%
43. Vermont — 8.95%
44. New York — 8.97%
45. New Jersey — 8.97%
46. Iowa* — 8.98%
47. Rhode Island — 9.9%
48. California — 10.55%
49. Oregon — 11%
50. Hawaii — 11%
While high taxes and Right-to-Work laws are not a cause and effect relationship, the common denominator between the two does seem to be the politicians who control the Statehouse—and whether or not they are beholden to labor unions.
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