We Don’t Need More Tax Rankings. We Need Better Tax Decisions.

Every year, Americans are flooded with rankings.

Best states for business.

Best states for taxes.

Worst states for taxpayers.

Most tax-friendly states.

Least tax-friendly states.

Organizations such as the Tax Foundation publish extensive state tax competitiveness rankings, while other organizations publish taxpayer return-on-investment studies and tax burden comparisons. These reports provide valuable information and have helped shape public discussion around taxation.

Yet one question remains surprisingly difficult to answer:

What specific policy changes would improve taxpayer outcomes without harming the state’s financial stability?

This question matters because taxpayers do not benefit from rankings alone.

A ranking can tell us that a state is performing poorly.

It cannot tell us what to do next.

The Problem With Most Tax Discussions

Tax debates often become ideological.

One side argues taxes are too high.

Another side argues government services need more funding.

In reality, taxpayers care about value.

Most residents are not asking:

Should taxes be higher or lower?

They are asking:

Am I receiving reasonable value for the taxes I pay?

This is a much harder question because it requires evaluating both costs and outcomes.

Low taxes are not automatically good.

High taxes are not automatically bad.

The real challenge is determining whether taxpayers receive sufficient public value relative to the burden they bear.

A New Question

Instead of asking:

Which state has the lowest taxes?

We should ask:

Which state delivers the greatest value per taxpayer dollar?

Answering this requires combining information from multiple public sources:

• Tax collections

• State budgets

• Education outcomes

• Infrastructure quality

• Public safety

• Economic growth

• Population migration

• Affordability metrics

These datasets already exist.

The problem is that they are fragmented across hundreds of reports, agencies, and databases.

Why AI Changes Everything

For decades, governments have collected enormous amounts of data.

The challenge was never collection.

The challenge was analysis.

Today, AI can help identify patterns, correlations, and tradeoffs that would otherwise require months of manual work.

For example:

• Which tax policies are associated with population growth?

• Which spending categories generate the highest public benefit?

• Which policy changes appear revenue-neutral?

• Which states achieve strong outcomes at lower cost?

AI cannot replace policymakers.

But it can help them evaluate options more efficiently.

From Rankings to Recommendations

The next generation of public policy tools should not stop at analysis.

They should help answer practical questions.

For example:

If a state reduces property taxes by 5%, what are the likely consequences?

What alternative revenue sources could offset the loss?

Which policy changes appear most likely to improve taxpayer value?

These are the types of questions that citizens, legislators, journalists, and policy analysts should be able to explore.

Building Public Policy Intelligence

My goal is not to advocate for higher taxes or lower taxes.

My goal is to help make public policy more measurable, transparent, and understandable.

The objective is simple:

Use publicly available data and modern analytical tools to help taxpayers and policymakers understand tradeoffs more clearly.

If even one state uses better data to make a better decision, the effort is worthwhile.

Public policy affects millions of people.

Better information leads to better decisions.

And better decisions ultimately improve lives.