The Wall Street Journal comes in with a strong editorial on Bill Gates Sr. (the Microsoft guy's dad) and his effort to impose a state income tax in Washington state, at a rate that would top out at 9%. From the editorial:
In addition to Washington, the states without an income tax are Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and Wyoming. Combined they had an average 18.2% growth rate in jobs over the past decade, more than twice the 8.4% job growth of the nine states with the highest income tax rates, according to a new report based on Commerce Department data by the American Legislative Exchange Council.
We flagged the Gates Sr.-Washington state income tax issue here back in March.