Fiscally liberal politicians are furiously trying to pound out the dents in their reputations.  Their unified complaint in the post-Trump tax reform world has been that budgets in traditionally Democratic states (i.e. blue states) would be sunk.  Data shows just the opposite.

Earlier this month California Governor Gavin Newsom introduced a revised $213 billion budget that includes a $21.5 billion surplus – 2% larger than his January projection.

Earlier this month Illinois reported that April individual and corporate tax revenues exceeded internal forecasts by $1.5 billion – a figure that will eliminate most of the fiscal year’s budget gap.

Last month The Pew Charitable Trusts reported that tax revenues in 41 states have hit inflation-adjusted records.  Revenue is 29.1% above its pre-recession peak in California, 18.2% in New York and 17.6% in Connecticut.  While liberal politicians point to the increased taxes in these states on those earning high incomes conservative politicians counter with the increased revenue statistics in states with no income tax such as Washington (26.6%), Tennessee (15.9%) and Texas (14.6%).

So what to do with found money?  Smart policy would be to promote job growth.  Maybe something like trying to land Amazon’s HQ2 (instead of driving them away…way to go NYC).  Maybe pay a dividend to individuals in the form of tax cuts.  Unfortunately if history is a guide the fiscal liberals will flush away the money.  They’ll demonize businesses and drive them to tax-friendly states so that the increased tax revenues can be “invested” in public sector unions.