The Nation: Will Red-State Protests Spark Electoral Change?

State lawmakers came “out of the gate in 2011 with a pretty regressive, large-scale tax-cut plan,” said Meg Wiehe, deputy director of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), a nonprofit, tax-focused research group. Led by Governor Fallin, the Oklahoma GOP wanted to scrap the income tax entirely—a plan that was the brainchild of conservative economist Arthur Laffer, the self-described “father of supply-side economics.”

… Not all of these states immediately slashed taxes. “It was kind of a slow buildup,” Wiehe recalled. “By 2013, 2014, you really felt the red wave in the states.” By then, they “either succeeded or tried in major ways to completely upend their tax systems.”

…It makes sense that the fight started with education. People notice when their children’s schools are crumbling and their teachers keep leaving. “That’s one of the best things about the teacher strikes—it shows the dots connecting…investment and the public services we all rely on,” Wiehe said. “When you cut taxes for rich people primarily…you’re really disinvesting in things that make states places where people want to live and work.” Read more

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