Public-Sector Forced Union Fees Would Hurt Iowa’s Private Sector

### ‘Tax Freedom Day’ Comes 10 Days Earlier in States That Bar All Forced Union Fees

Iowans most recently celebrated “Tax Freedom Day†on April 18, 2006. For Americans as a group, last year Tax Freedom Day came eight days later than in Iowa, on April 26.

The term Tax Freedom Day was coined and popularized by the nonpartisan, Washington, D.C.-based Tax Foundation. As a 2006 Tax Foundation press release explained, it is “the day when Americans . . . finally have earned enough money to pay off their total [federal, state and local] tax burden for the year.â€

Monitoring when Tax Freedom Day falls is an easy way to gauge the American citizen’s heavy tax burden, which on average comprises nearly a third of his or her income. However, residents of different states often have tax burdens that are significantly less or more onerous than the national average.

And Right to Work laws, which protect both private-sector and public-sector employees from being forced to pay dues or fees to an unwanted union, are strongly correlated with lighter tax burdens. According to the Tax Foundation’s estimate, in 2006 the average Tax Freedom Day in the 22 states with Right to Work laws on the books was April 20, six days earlier than the national average.

Meanwhile, in the 28 non-Right to Work states as a group, Tax Freedom Day didn’t come until April 30, four days later than the national average and 10 days later than the average in Right to Work states. (For simplicity’s sake, the Tax Foundation assumes an equal amount of income is earned every day, and does not distinguish weekdays from weekends.)