Georgia ranks 45th of 50 States in economic recovery

States with the least recovery

•  Alaska was furthest from its peak (-59.9 percent) among the 50 states, but its 2008 high point was due to a short-lived windfall from record crude oil prices and a new oil tax. With no personal income or sales taxes, the state relies on severance taxes for more than three-fourths of its revenue, though it recently trimmed those to try to spur more oil production. Still, Alaska has significant financial resources, with the largest reserves of any state. (See Fiscal 50’s Reserves and Balances indicator.)  
•  Wyoming’s tax revenue was down 27.6 percent from its early 2009 peak. With no personal or corporate income taxes, the state depends heavily on severance taxes on coal, oil, and natural gas. As a result, its revenue system is one of the most volatile in the country, according to a Pew report, Managing Uncertainty.  
•  Florida, where tax revenue was 20.2 percent below its inflation-adjusted peak, enacted $500 million in tax cuts during the 2014 legislative session. One of seven states without a personal income tax, Florida was hit harder by the housing bust than almost any other state, but its revenue slide began before the recession, in mid-2006.  
•  New Mexico’s tax revenue was 17.9 percent below its prerecession peak at the end of 2013. Federal cutbacks and job losses, particularly in the public sector, have cost the state revenue, as have declines in income and severance taxes. 
•  Louisiana’s tax revenue was 15.2 percent below its peak collection, which occurred in 2008 while the state was rebuilding from hurricanes Katrina and Rita. An income tax cut took effect after the recession. 

Georgia’s tax revenue was 14.2% below its pre-recession level, despite its 2013 auto sales tax increase.

States with the greatest recovery

• North Dakota’s tax revenue skyrocketed with an oil boom, besting all states with receipts that were 119.4 percent higher than at the 2008 peak. As receipts from sales taxes and severance taxes on oil production soared, the state cut income and property taxes.  
• Illinois posted the second-largest increase over its previous peak (23.4 percent), thanks in part to a temporary tax increase on personal and corporate income in 2011. Unless the General Assembly makes it permanent, the tax hike is supposed to phase down starting in January 2015, cutting revenue by as much as $1.5 billion in fiscal 2015. 
• Minnesota’s tax revenue first surpassed its 2008 peak in 2011 and was 20.6 percent higher by the end of 2013. After raising taxes on high-income earners that year, the state trimmed taxes during the 2014 legislative session in response to a predicted surplus. 

Data Source: http://www.pewstates.org/research/analysis/state-tax-revenue-grows-but-a-full-recovery-eludes-26-states-85899545362