The states also hope to increase revenue to improve schools, create jobs, provide health care for the poor and pay for other essentials of government spending.

Kentucky, Texas and Ohio are the latest to adopt versions of the tax on companies' sales or profits, levied at a very low rate meant to apply to as broad a swath of corporate earnings as possible. Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm has also proposed a version as part of a tax system overhaul.

"There were far too many companies doing profitable business here but not paying their fair share of taxes," said Brad Cowgill, Kentucky state budget director.

The states' economic situations drove each to look more closely at the decline in corporate tax revenue brought on by the post-2000 recession. State tax directors believed the drops in corporate taxes had been out of proportion in poor economic times.