COMMENTARY: Right-to-work states win as trillions have fled union states

By Stan Greer InsideSources.com July 30, 2026 - 9:00 pm For many years, IRS data have shown how California, New York and Illinois are paying a high price for allowing dues-hungry union leaders to get workers fired for refusing to bankroll their organizations. Year after year, far more taxpayers have been leaving forced-dues states than moving into them. The cumulative net losses in taxpayers and their income have been cutting into these states’ revenue bases. The latest taxpayer migration data furnished by the IRS showed that the 23 states then lacking right-to-work laws — laws that ban forced union fees as a job condition — lost a total of $40 billion in adjusted gross income because the net outmigration of taxpayers occurring in the single year before they filed their tax returns for 202