(The Center Square) – Ohio may not be one of the top states in the nation in a new economic outlook report, but its’ improvement is significant, according to the American Legislative Exchange Council.
Continued tax cuts moved Ohio from being the worst state in ALEC’s annual Rich States, Poor States outlook rankings in 2007 to 26th this year.
“They’ve had different leadership and have cut taxes aggressively on personal income and other forms of taxes,” said Jonathan Williams, one of the report’s authors. “Ohio is middle of the pack now after being nearly dead last in the first couple editions of Rich States, Poor States. Ohio has been an out-migration state, but that all came to an end this last year in the newest census report where we have seen Ohio gain population. Americans will move from state to state, and they don’t go to places they aren’t wanted. When you look at the policy environment and how Ohio has turned things around, and we’ve been projecting that in our rankings saying, ‘They are a turnaround state.’ It’s great to see that validated by Americans now moving into Ohio.”
The annual rankings from ALEC – an organization favoring limited government, free markets and federalism – were released Tuesday morning. They rank states on 15 state policy categories including gross domestic product, domestic migration and non-farm payroll employment.
Ohio ranked 33rd in the backward-looking economic performance statistics.
Ohio earned top rankings for its lack of an estate or inheritance tax, average working compensation costs of $0.077 per $100 of payroll and its top marginal corporate income tax rate of 3.64%.
Ohio’s lowest points (zero to 50 in 15 categories) again came from it not being a right-to-work state, personal income tax progressivity, the state liability system (tort litigation treatment and judicial impartiality) and debt service as a share of tax revenue.
Ohio ranked 24th in state gross domestic product, 41st in absolute domestic migration from 2013-22 and 34th in non-farm payroll.
