Tuesday, April 08, 2008

Vandy Prof: Why TN Needs an Income Tax

and also Florida and Texas. Good luck with that.

Abstract (Scroll down for link to PDF)
This paper examines the general relationship between state tax policy and state spending policy and concludes that states that rely solely (or even primarily) on either an income tax or a retail sales tax (but not both) to finance state spending are pursuing an ultimately unstable course. This group of states includes, for example, my home state of Tennessee, but also includes such states as Florida and Texas.