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Table 6

America's Tax-Cutting Governors

Governor

State

Tax Cut

Jane Hull

Arizona

$120 million business tax cut

Mike Huckabee

Arkansas

$80 million income tax cut

John Rowland

Connecticut

10 percent income tax cut

Tom Carper

Delaware

17 percent reduction in top income tax rate

Zell Miller*

Georgia

Cut income tax & phased out sales tax on food

Benjamin Cayetano

Hawaii

18 percent reduction in top income tax rate

Philip Batt*

Idaho

$40 million property tax cut

Terry Branstad*

Iowa

10 percent income tax rate cut

Bill Graves

Kansas

Property & income tax cuts

Parris Glendening

Maryland

10 percent income tax cut

Paul Cellucci

Massachusetts

$1 billion income tax cut

John Engler

Michigan

24 tax cuts , including 10 percent income tax cut

Arne Carlson*

Minnesota

20 percent property tax cut

Kirk Fordice

Mis s i s s i p p i

Capital gains & income tax cuts

Ben Nelson*

Nebraska

Incom e tax rate cuts

Christine Whitman

New Jersey

30 percent income tax rate cut

Gary Johnson

N e w Mexico

Incom e tax rate cut & gas tax cut

George Pataki

N e w York

20 percent income tax rate cut

James Hunt

North Carolina

Cuts in income tax & sales tax on food

Frank Keating

Oklahoma

Incom e tax rate cut

Tom Ridge

P e n n s ylvania

$2 billion income tax cuts

Lincoln Almond

Rhode Island

10 percent income tax rate cut

David Beasley*

South Carolina

Phaseout of car tax

William Janklow

South Dakota

25 percent property tax cut

Don Sundquist

Tennessee

Blocked income tax

George W. Bush

Texas

$1 billion property tax cut

Michael Leavitt

U tah

Property & sales tax cuts

Howard Dean

Vermont

Incom e tax cut

Jim Gilmore

Virginia

Phaseout of car tax

T o m m y Thom p s o n

Wisconsin

15 percent income tax rate cut

*Left office in 1999.

are 11 states that have higher personal income

erty taxes. George W. Bush of Texas enacted a

By fiscal year

tax rates today than they did at the start of the

$1 billion property tax cut in 1997. Table 6

1997, real per

decade. There are eight more states that have

shows the tax cuts enacted by the governors in

capita state

higher statutory corporate tax rates.

recent years.

California's fiscal situation in the 1990s is

Despite the accolades that governors have

revenues had

illustrative. In 1991 Gov. Pete Wilson enacted

received for their tax-cutting campaigns, our

reached a high of

a $7 billion increase in income and sales

analysis suggests that, in most cases, recent tax

$3,884.

taxes--the largest tax increase of any state in

cuts have not offset the legislated tax increases

the nation ever. But in the mid and late 1990s

of the early 1990s. Table 7 shows that there

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