Editor’s Note: This piece is an ongoing investigative series in partnership with Watchdog.org’s state-level journalists. Pension budget woes beset nearly every state in the union and cities and municipalities are also being hit with unprecedented pension debt. Baby boomers are retiring….

Lagging job growth, rising taxes and coercive union tactics created an appetite for labor reform throughout the rust belt states. Transforming Labor, the latest policy report from the Commonwealth Foundation, ranks states on their progress toward reforms that can produce…