Five Big 2016 Victories Across the States

We love end-of-year lists. And while you can find boatloads of them across the internet (including our most popular blog posts of the year!), some of the most exciting policy victories happened at the state level in 2016.

  1. Personal Income Tax Elimination: Tennessee eliminated all state personal income taxes in April, joining seven other income tax free states. The CEO of the Beacon Center said, “They [lawmakers] realized that this tax unfairly hurts senior citizens and job creators and did the right thing to repeal it. We can now celebrate a major reduction to the tax bills of many Tennesseans who are in desperate need of tax relief.”
  2. Local Right to Work: In a major win for right-to-work laws, a Kentucky town won a federal appeal to implement local right to work.
  3. 26th Right to Work State: Speaking of right-to-work, in February West Virginia passed the Workplace Freedom Act and became the 26th right-to-work state.
  4. Labor Reform Election Victories: In Alabama, South Dakota, and West Virginia, voters backed labor union reforms. In Alabama, some 70% of voters supported an amendment to enshrine right-to-work in the state’s constitution. In South Dakota, a union-backed ballot measure aimed at destroying right-to-work protections was rejected by around 80% of voters. Finally, lawmakers in West Virginia, who helped pass right-to-work, were overwhelmingly rewarded with re-election.
  5. State Corporate Income Tax Reduction: Five states implemented corporate income tax reductions, including Arizona, Indiana, New York, New Mexico, and North Carolina.