To the editor:

State unemployment and income tax data refute Gov. Brownback’s claim that Kansas will have more jobs if it lowers taxes on corporations and the rich and raises them on the middle class and working poor. Three states — Nevada, Texas and Wyoming — have neither individual nor corporate income or income-type taxes. Yet, according to the most current figures available from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Nevada has the highest unemployment rate of all states at 12.6 percent compared to the national average of 8.7 percent. Nevada, Texas and Wyoming have an average unemployment rate of 8.73 percent.

Four states — Alaska, Florida, New Hampshire and South Dakota — tax corporate income but not individual income.  Their average unemployment rate is 6.33 percent, a whopping 2.37 percentage points lower than nationally. If these statistics have any meaning on the issue of jobs, they show that states that tax corporations but not individuals offer the best economic environment for jobs.  Gov. Brownback’s tax plan has it exactly backwards.