The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) has released its 2026 report entitled "Rich States Poor States." The report measures 15 "policy variables," such as gross domestic product (GDP), domestic migration, and payroll employment. Surprise, or maybe not so surprising, is the fact that states run by Democrats — New York, New Jersey, California, and Illinois — round out the bottom of the list.

States are ranked with 15 equal factors, including taxes and spending and tort systems. These 15 factors are something all 50 state legislatures can control or change at any time.”

Of the ten states at the bottom of the list, nine have what the report calls a "Democratic trifecta," meaning that Democrats control both houses of their legislatures and the governorship. The exception being Vermont and its liberal Republican Gov. Phil Scott. So how do those blue states stack up economically? New York came in dead last for the 13th year in a row, with the second-highest marginal personal and highest corporate income tax rates at 14.78 percent and 18.28 percent, respectively. There was no upswing in areas like property tax or sales tax.

soccer wont except this of course and MG will say, "I was just going to say the same thing soccer." They always want a source, but of course unless it is Occupy Democrats or something similar, the source in not valid.