ALEC Publishes 'Essential Policy Solutions 2025' Playbook - State-Level Corporate and Income Tax Elimination Agenda, Coordination with Federal Project 2025

In February 2025, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) published its ‘Essential Policy Solutions’ playbook for 2025, doubling down on its decades-long campaign to eliminate state corporate and individual income taxes and replace them with higher sales taxes—a regressive shift that would dramatically increase tax burdens on working families while slashing taxes on wealthy individuals and profitable corporations. The playbook opens with CEO Lisa Nelson declaring ‘On Election Night 2024, the American people overwhelmingly embraced the path of lower taxes, fewer regulations, and a fundamental shift of power back to the states. In other words, America chose the path championed by ALEC: federalism.’ The document positions state tax elimination as complementary to federal Project 2025 proposals to replace federal income and corporate taxes with a flat consumption tax. ALEC singles out state business and individual income taxes as having ’the largest negative impact on economic outlook and growth’—a claim contradicted by overwhelming empirical evidence showing ALEC-endorsed policies actually lead to worse state outcomes for job creation and wage growth. The playbook promotes ALEC’s model policy from nearly a decade ago advocating replacement of income taxes with higher sales taxes, one of the most regressive tax structures possible since low-income families spend nearly all earnings on consumption while wealthy families save and invest substantial portions. In 2025 alone, Mississippi and Oklahoma passed plans to phase out personal income taxes entirely following ALEC guidance, while Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky, Montana, and Utah slashed top income tax rates. Idaho, Kansas, and Utah also cut corporate income tax rates, primarily benefiting large, highly profitable corporations. ALEC released a letter in May 2024 signed by over 400 state lawmakers supporting permanent extension of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act provisions set to expire in 2025—a coordinated campaign to maintain the federal corporate tax cut from 35% to 21%. The 2025 playbook represents ALEC’s ‘Project 2025 for the states,’ coordinating model legislation across Republican-controlled state legislatures to systematically dismantle progressive taxation and public service capacity. Research consistently shows that states conforming less to ALEC’s policy proposals perform better economically with stronger job creation and wage growth, yet ALEC continues promoting policies that serve corporate donors rather than evidence-based economic development. The organization’s tax agenda creates a ‘race to the bottom’ where states compete to offer the lowest taxes to corporations and wealthy individuals, devastating funding for education, healthcare, infrastructure, and other essential services while exacerbating economic inequality.