My point is that if you live in Texas with no state income tax, you do not get any deduction for state income taxes paid so the federal government gets full freight from you on your federal income tax. If, however, you live in New York City and are paying over 12% of your income in state and local income taxes, you get to deduct those amounts from your income and the federal government receives less money from you than it would if you made the same income in a no-state income tax state. This amounts to a diversion of would-be federal tax revenues to spendthrift states, i.e., a subsidy by the taxpayers in Texas (Florida, etc...) of the bloated state budgets of the high-tax states. In other words, all other things being equal, Texas taxpayers pay a higher percentage of their income to the federal government than do New Yorkers or Californians.
There’s no diversion by the states ~ you chose where you want to live. Besides, federal tax levels ARE NOT determined by what is needed by the government ~ they’re willful, arbitrary and capricious in the extreme. No decision by any state can be traced to the results!
All sales tax is deductible in states with no income tax.