By Gene Meyer

States with no income taxes are gaining congressional seats and, as a policy analyst told lawmakers Feb. 7, more states are moving toward cutting or eliminating the taxes to create jobs and grow wealth.

“The point is, people choose to live based on the services that governments provide and the tax policies of those governments,” Jonathon Williams, a fiscal analyst with the American Legislative Exchange Council, told members of the Kansas House Taxation Committee. ALEC is a nonpartisan organization composed of state legislators who support federalism and conservative approaches to government policy.

States without income taxes, such as Texas, Florida and Washington, are gaining congressional seats in redistricting efforts under way this year, because jobs and lower taxes drew more people to those states.

In the past decade, states such as Michigan and Illinois, where income taxes are higher, are losing seats because their populations have decreased.

California – a poster child for states with high income taxes – failed to gain a seat for the first time since becoming a state in 1850. Neighboring Nevada, which has no income tax, gained a congressional seat, because its population increased. 

Midwest states, such as Kansas, Oklahoma and Missouri, are among those looking to reduce or eliminate state income taxes to strengthen their respective economies.