This paper exploits an original database of state legislators in the US states, 1900-2010, to perform the first empirical analysis of the relationship between historical legislator occupations and state fiscal development over the long run. We focus on the growth of the legal profession among state legislators over the 20th century. We argue that lawyers and judges wanted state governments to grow to further their intrinsic interests. We show evidence for a positive, statistically significant, and robust relationship between increases in legal occupations of state legislators and long-run state fiscal development (size and progressivity). This focus on the vested interest of state actors to grow state government improves our understanding of the fundamental determinants of cross-state fiscal differences today.