Horrible. More government is always a bad thing. If the actual gola of government is to allow people to keep more of their earnings and encourage them to invest it why not just lower taxes (income, property, sales, doesn't matter... Lower all or any) or allow a higher deduction for an IRA. At a state level it could be a credit for property tax, sales tax, gas tax, unemployment tax, disability tax, or any number of other taxes, or just a credit with a net zero lower limit at the state level. There are much more simple ways to do this at a state level that don't involve any significant government overhead (i.e. welfare, or paying people to push paper, dig holes, fill them in, etc.).