Over the past decade Americans have been voting with their feet in favor of states with lower overall tax burdens and greater worker freedom found in Right to Work statutory protections against coerced unionization. As a result, high tax states without Right-to-Work are set to lose congressional clout for the next decade, to the benefit of low tax states that have Right-to-Work laws. 

Today the U.S. Census Bureau released the final population figures that will determine reapportionment of congressional seats ahead of the 2022 elections. The following states will lose one seat in the U.S. House of Representatives: 

New York

Illinois

Ohio

Pennsylvania

California

Michigan

West Virginia

Texas will gain two congressional seats and the following states will each receive an additional House seat from the above states that are losing them: 

North Carolina

Florida

Oregon

Montana

Colorado

Unsurprisingly to many, the seven states that will lose congressional seats due to stagnant population growth have higher top income tax rates and greater overall tax burdens, on average, than do the six states gaining seats. In fact, the average top personal income tax rate for states losing seats in congress is 6.5%, which is 46% greater than the average top income tax rate for states gaining seats, which is 4.45%. 

In addition to having a higher top income tax rate, the states losing clout in congress post-reapportionment also impose a more hefty overall tax burden than do the states gaining seats in congress. The average state and local tax burden for the seven states losing seats is 11.04%, which is more than 16% higher than the average state and local tax burden for the six states picking up House seats, which is 9.48%. 

In addition to having a lower average tax burden than the seven states losing congressional seats, the six states gaining seats post-reapportionment have a greater degree of worker freedom. Three of the six states gaining a seat have Right-to-Work laws that protect workers from being forced to join and fund a union as a condition of employment. 

Only two of the seven states losing a congressional seat have a Right-to-Work law and those two states – West Virginia and Michigan – were among the states to most recently add that protection for workers. Michigan’s Right-to-Work law was enacted in 2012, and West Virginia’s took effect in 2016. While none of the states losing congressional seats had Right-to-Work a decade ago, the desire to stop losing jobs and people to Right-to-Work states was a motivation for the law’s enactment in Michigan and West Virginia.

At a time when President Joe Biden, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) are wielding power to impose trillions of dollars in higher federal taxes, prohibit state-level tax relief, and nationally preempt state Right-to-Work laws, it may give some congressional Democrats pause that Census Bureau figures show Americans are voting with their feet in favor of the very policies that the White House and congressional Democrats seek to block.