Move:Red States Have The Best Economic Growth-Texas Number One

REPORT: Red States Have Most Economic Potential

A new study
from the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) ranked all 50 states
for their economic potential, and surprise! Virtually all of the top ten were
states that voted for the GOP.

The study, called “Red States, Poor States” was the sixth in a continuing
series from ALEC, and rated the states using 15 factors, some of which were
minimum wage laws, labor policies, and rates of taxation. The top of the list
was Utah.

ALEC’s Jonathan Williams said, “The real key to Utah is low tax rates, but
more than that a predictable tax climate. Utah legislators are very
conscientious about the fact that they don’t spend beyond their means and also
they don’t make changes in tax policy retroactively. They make changes very
gradually and they generally make them in a lower tax direction.”

Williams added that the worst ten states were more likely high-tax “blue”
states which had stringent restrictions on businesses.

According to the ALEC study, the state with the greatest economic growth from
2001-2011 was Texas, and the worst was Michigan. The numbers for growth were
derived from the states’ job growth, gross state product growth, and population
shifts. Williams said that the study did not include data from natural
resources, weather and social policies.