COMMENTARY: Right-to-Work States Win as People, Businesses, and Their Income Flee Big Labor-Controlled States

From the Las Vegas Review-Journal:

As a consequence of the massive net losses of income it experienced from 2012 onward by means of “foot voting,” forced-unionism California’s 2023 aggregate adjusted gross income was slashed by 11.8 percent, according to the Committee to Unleash Prosperity’s estimate. Illinois’ aggregate adjusted gross income was 20.7 percent lower than it would have been. And net taxpayer outmigration cut New York’s 2023 total adjusted gross income by 21.1 percent.

Cumulative losses of taxable income of this magnitude make it far more burdensome for the taxpayers who remain to cover the cost of state and local government in Big Labor-dominated jurisdictions.

And this year, union-owned politicians in Sacramento, Springfield and Albany are greenlighting additional costly taxpayer-funded handouts for public-sector unions, practically ensuring their already troubled state finances will face even more severe problems in the future. The remaining taxpayers in these forced-unionism states will have to front the burden until they also choose to leave.

Author: Stanley Greer, National Institute for Labor Relations Research