Taxes and Budget

State income tax

50 public statements from 2026 candidates

§1The range of views

Why this matters: Where a state has an income tax, it comes out of your paycheck alongside federal tax and helps pay for state services like schools, roads and Medicaid.

Drafted by AI, then checked for neutral wording in a separate AI review. It describes the question and the main positions, not any candidate's view. Facts link to their sources.

Whether a state taxes its residents' income and at what rates, which governors and state legislatures decide.

  1. Add or raise taxes on the highest incomes (for example, a tax on income over $1 million)
  2. Keep current rates
  3. Cut rates or move to a single flat rate
  4. Phase out the state income tax

These options describe policies, not people. The order is not a ranking.

§2What candidates have said

Why this matters: Statements candidates made publicly, summarized in plain words with a link to where they said it. Candidates who haven't spoken publicly on this issue aren't listed.

Drafted by AI from the public sources cited. Each sentence links to its source.

Add or raise taxes on the highest incomes (for example, a tax on income over $1 million) (3)

  • Analilia Mejia NJ-11
    Her campaign website lists helping lead New Jersey's push for a millionaire's tax, which it says succeeded, among her accomplishments.1
  • Helena Buonanno Foulkes RI Governor
    Her housing plan proposes a millionaire's tax, an added 3% income tax bracket on incomes of $1 million and above, to pay for a revolving loan fund meant to build more than 20,000 homes and apartments.2
  • June Goodband VT Governor
    Her campaign website says the state should raise taxes on high incomes, separate the state tax system from the federal one and set a standard deduction in line with the cost of living in Vermont.3

Keep current rates (6)

  • Byron Donalds FL Governor
    His campaign website says he would keep Florida's state personal income tax at zero.4
  • Dean Ocean Abrams FL Governor
    His campaign website says he would defend Florida's constitutional ban on a state personal income tax.5
  • Cinde Warmington NH Governor
    Her campaign website says she will make sure New Hampshire does not have an income tax.6
  • Kelly Ayotte NH Governor
    Her campaign website says she is holding the line against new taxes, with no income tax and no sales tax, ever.7
  • Stephen Villee NH Governor
    His campaign website says he would veto any state income tax, sales tax, other new tax or tax increase.8
  • Lauren Pinkston TN Governor
    Her campaign website says she opposes creating a Tennessee state income tax.9

Cut rates or move to a single flat rate (12)

  • Steve Hilton CA Governor
    His campaign website says he would eliminate state income tax on the first $150,000 people earn.10,11
  • Ritesh Tandon CA-17
    His campaign website says California's state income tax rates should be lowered toward 5% in phases tied to spending cuts and economic growth.12
  • Victor Marx CO Governor
    His campaign website says he would support a phased reduction of the state income tax rate when verified revenue surpluses exist.13
  • Ryan Fazio CT Governor
    His campaign website says he would cut state income tax rates, providing more than $2.5 billion a year in tax relief when fully in effect.14
  • Rick Jackson GA Governor
    His campaign website says he would cut the state income tax in half within four years, and his action plan says he would also eliminate the state income tax on tips.15,16,17
  • Priscilla Gonzalez LA-3
    Her campaign website says that if elected she will prioritize a strategy to support the reduction of state income taxes in Louisiana, mainly by securing federal funds and supporting economic growth, and its Taxes page lists reducing tax rates among its solutions.18,19
  • Dan Cox MD Governor
    His campaign website says he plans to cut the state's corporate and income tax rates to 4.9%.20
  • Paul R. LePage ME-2
    His campaign website lists among his accomplishments as governor the largest tax cut in Maine history, which it says eliminated income taxes for the working poor.21
  • Lisa Demuth MN Governor
    Her campaign website says she would cut state income taxes for families by reducing the two lowest tax brackets.22,23
  • Bob Onder MO-3
    His campaign website says that in the Missouri Senate he repeatedly sponsored legislation to lower income taxes, including SB902 in 2022, SB245 in 2021 and SB640 in 2020.24
  • Tim Moore NC-14
    His campaign website lists, among results under his leadership in the state legislature, the largest personal income tax cut in the state's history.25
  • Tom Tiffany WI Governor
    His campaign website says he would cut income taxes by 10% for working families earning less than $150,000 a year.26

Phase out the state income tax (10)

  • Pro-Life ID Governor
    His campaign website says Idaho should eliminate its income tax after first eliminating the sales tax.27
  • Robert B. Charles ME Governor
    His campaign website says he pledges to abolish the state income tax.28
  • John James MI Governor
    His campaign website says he would eliminate the state income tax, starting with a one-quarter cut paid for by cutting what it says is at least $3 billion in waste, corporate welfare and fraud, and then phasing the tax out entirely.29
  • Anthony Hudson MI Governor
    His campaign website says he would eliminate the state income tax.30
  • Donna Brandenburg MI Governor
    Her candidate statement says she would eliminate the state income tax.31
  • Greggory D Hull NM Governor
    His campaign website proposes phasing out New Mexico's tax on eligible personal income in four conditional steps, each requiring legislative approval and protected funding for schools, health care and public safety, starting with the first $25,000 of taxable income for single filers and $50,000 for married couples filing jointly, while net business profits would stay taxable.32,33
  • Vivek Ramaswamy OH Governor
    His campaign website says he would phase out Ohio's state income tax, starting by eliminating the tax on capital gains.34
  • Mike Mazzei OK Governor
    His campaign website says he would make Oklahoma a state with no income tax, pairing each tax cut with a spending reform or offset.35
  • Ken Krawchuk PA Governor
    His campaign website says he would propose budgets that eliminate Pennsylvania's personal income tax over four years.36
  • Alan Wilson SC Governor
    His campaign website says he will fight to eliminate the state income tax.37

Statements that don't match one option (19)

  • Doug Jones AL Governor
    His campaign website says he would end state taxes on overtime pay and create a state earned income tax credit.38
  • Amanda Hollowell GA-1
    Her campaign website lists among her results at the Georgia Budget & Policy Institute helping block deeper state income tax cuts that would have reduced funding for schools, health care and essential services.39
  • Keisha Lance Bottoms GA Governor
    Her campaign website says she would eliminate the state income tax for teachers to help recruit and keep them.40
  • Josh Green HI Governor
    His campaign website lists the biggest tax cut for the middle class in Hawaii's history, and doubling the earned income tax credit and the food tax credit, among his first-term accomplishments, and his official biography describes the cut as the largest income tax cut in the state's history.41,42
  • Paul Sand ID Governor
    His campaign website proposes making counties the main level of government, with businesses sending state income and sales tax receipts to their county and the state income and sales taxes going away.43
  • Collin Corbett IL Governor
    His campaign website says Illinois's flat income tax is necessary under the state's current leadership, and that once the state's finances allow he would work to expand the earned income and child tax credits and the personal exemption; his Get Illinois Growing Again page adds that he would institute no tax on overtime and no tax on tips in Illinois.44,45
  • Maura Healey MA Governor
    Her campaign website says she cut taxes for the first time in more than 20 years, with savings for families, seniors and small businesses.46
  • Wes Moore MD Governor
    His campaign website says he cut taxes for the middle class, with 94% getting a tax break or no change in their tax bill.47
  • Hannah M. Pingree ME Governor
    Her campaign website says she would build on Maine's new millionaire's tax by starting a process to look at more ways to make the state's tax system more progressive so those at the top pay what it calls their fair share.48
  • Lynne Walz NE Governor
    Her campaign website says working people should not pay more in taxes than the highest earners, and that the state should close loopholes and adjust rates.49
  • Josh Gottheimer NJ-5
    A tax cut plan linked from his campaign website's issues page, written for his run for governor, says he would add state income tax credits, including a $500 yearly refundable credit for renters, a Family Tax Credit for families with dependents, and $1,000 off state income taxes in the year they turn 70 for seniors who have lived in the state for at least ten years.50,51
  • Kathy C. Hochul NY Governor
    Her campaign website says she cut middle-class taxes to the lowest rate in 70 years.52
  • Cyndi Munson OK Governor
    Her campaign website says she opposes further income tax cuts that benefit the wealthiest, and would instead expand credits such as the Earned Income Tax Credit.53
  • Robert E Brooks Sr OK Governor
    His tax plan's goal is to eliminate state personal income tax on household income up to three times Oklahoma's median household income, and over time to shift individual taxes toward consumption.54
  • Christine Drazan OR Governor
    Her campaign website says she would cut taxes by raising Oregon's standard deduction, veto new tax and fee increases, and veto attempts by the Legislature to take Oregonians' kicker.55
  • Kenneth J Block RI Governor
    His campaign website says he would veto a millionaire's tax if the legislature passed one, and that he would work with lawmakers to end the state income tax on Social Security benefits.56
  • Jasjit S Gotra RI Governor
    His campaign website says he would fully eliminate Rhode Island's tax on Social Security benefits within his first two years in office.57,58
  • Jermaine Johnson SC Governor
    His campaign website opposes eliminating the state income tax, saying that would mainly benefit the wealthiest, and proposes raising the share of families who pay no income tax to 70%.59
  • Marsha Blackburn TN Governor
    Her campaign website says that as a state senator she led the fight against a proposed state income tax, and that as governor she will continue low-tax, pro-growth policies.60,61