Wall Street Journal editorial:  The State Tax Reformers:

Washington may be a tax reform wasteland, but out in the states the
action is hot and heavy. Nine states—including such fast-growing places
as Florida, Tennessee and Texas—currently have no income tax, and the
race is on to see which will be the tenth, and perhaps the 11th and
12th.

Oklahoma and Kansas have lowered their income-tax rates in the last two
years with an aim toward eliminating the tax altogether. North
Carolina’s newly elected Republican Governor Pat McCrory has prioritized
tax reform this year and wants to reduce the income tax. Ditto for
another newcomer, Mike Pence of Indiana, who has called for a 10%
income-tax rate cut. Susana Martinez, New Mexico’s Republican Governor,
has called for slashing the state corporate tax to 4.9% from 7.6%, and
the first Republican-controlled legislature since Reconstruction in
Arkansas is considering chopping its tax rates by as much as half.

But those are warm-up acts compared to Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman’s
announcement this month that he wants to eliminate the state income tax
and replace it with a broader sales tax. … Then there’s Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, who wants to zero out his state’s income tax (top rate 6%) and the 8% corporate tax and replace them by raising the state’s current 4% sales tax. …

A new analysis by economist Art Laffer for the American Legislative
Exchange Council [Rich States, Poor States] finds that, from 2002 to 2012, 62% of the three million
net new jobs in America were created in the nine states without an
income tax, though these states account for only about 20% of the
national population. …

This state reform trend is a rare bright spot in the current high-tax
era, and it will further sharpen the contrast in economic policies
between GOP reform Governors and the union-dominated high-tax models of
California, Illinois, New York, Massachusetts and now Minnesota, where
last week Governor Mark Dayton proposed a huge tax hike. Let the policy
competition begin.