States That Adopt Income Taxes Suck Wind

I'll never forget when Lowell Weicker, the RINO Connecticut Republican-turned-Democrat, first instituted an income tax in Connecticut 20 years ago (a "temporary" one, of course). The Kennedy family awarded him with the John F. Kennedy Jr. Profiles in Courage Award. For creating a new tax where none existed before. Yes sir-ee.

Can you imagine how well Connecticut's economy would be doing right now with zero income tax within a stone's throw of New York City. The mind reels.

But now comes Art Laffer with some devasating data on how states that institute income taxes suffer:

"The 11 states where income taxes were adopted over the past 50 years are: Connecticut (1991), New Jersey (1976), Ohio (1971), Rhode Island (1971), Pennsylvania (1971), Maine (1969), Illinois (1969), Nebraska (1967), Michigan (1967), Indiana (1963) and West Virginia (1961). 

Each and every state that introduced an income tax saw its share of total U.S. output decline. Some of the states, like Michigan, Pennsylvania and Ohio, have become fiscal basket cases. As the nearby chart shows, even West Virginia, which was poor to begin with, got relatively poorer after adopting a state income tax."