Best and Worst States For Taxes (2000 Bush States Are Best, Gore States Are Worst!)

MSN | 2/11/03 | Phillip Harper

[Recovering_Democrat]

The state of your tax bill depends in no small measure on your state.

That's because the tax burdens imposed by the 50 states are as varied as their landscapes. You can pump up your business's bottom line by being smart about where you decide to operate.

Of course, taxes aren't the only criteria people apply when choosing a business venue. If they were, Alaska would be far more crowded; by almost any measure, its residents pay the lowest tax rate in the nation...

To assess relative state tax burdens accurately, the Tax Foundation adjusts National Income and Product Account data collected by the U.S. Department of Commerce's Bureau of Economic Analysis. One important comparison the foundation makes is of the total tax burden in each state (including federal taxes) to just the state/local tax burden. In both cases, taxes are measured as a percentage of income.

When federal taxes are included, the 10 states that imposed the lowest total tax burdens in 2002 were:

State	Income Tax (in %)
1. Alaska 2. Oklahoma 3. (tie) West Virginia     Alabama 5. Tennessee 6. North Dakota 7. South Dakota 8. (tie) Mississippi     Montana 10. Louisiana	27.0 29.0 29.1 29.1 29.2 29.5 29.7 29.8 29.8 30.1

Meanwhile, the highest total taxes were levied in:

State	Income Tax (in %)
50. Connecticut 49. Washington 48. New York 47. New Jersey 46. Wyoming 45. Wisconsin 44. Minnesota 43. (tie) Michigan      Illinois 41. California	36.7 35.6 34.7 34.3 34.1 33.2 32.9 32.8 32.8 32.7

[Recovering_Democrat]

Look carefully: ALL of the low tax burden states went for BUSH in 2000. With the exception of WYOMING, all the HIGHEST states went for GORE in 2000.

[Lil'freeper]

I would have expected Maryland to rank as one of the very worst. Is there any way to get a good link to look up PRM on their chart?

[MsGail61]

Did they exempt income tax free states like FL?

[Dan from Michigan]

They forgot PROPERTY taxes. Those are probably the worst type.

[SwinneySwitch]

Texas has no state income tax.

[Mr. Bird]

this can be misleading. Obviously, low per-capita states such as Mississippi will have a lower percentage burden, because the majority of the earners are in lower brackets.

Not to say that this isn't useful, but there are mitigating factors. A better measurement would be to simply stack up the state tax burdens against each other in an apples to apples comparison: state income rates vs. state income rates, property vs. property, sales vs. sales, etc.

[drjimmy]

It's also interesting that 6 of the 10 worst states had Republican governors (with 3 Dems and 1 Reform).

[Guilliamus]

Re Wyoming...numbers can be misleading. Wyoming has no state income tax and a very low over all tax rate...among the lowest in the nation as far as Wyoming residents are concerned. Wyoming shows up as a high tax state on your list because it has an extractive tax on coal and oil that users in (mostly) Gore states end up paying.

[Reeses]

Also, because of progressive taxes it would be useful to see 3 comparisons for 3 levels of income. A sales tax but no income tax might work out better for higher incomes than no sales tax and an income tax. If you're retired or on welfare, a high income tax would have little bearing and a low or no sales tax would be better.

[j_tull]

Did they exempt income tax free states like FL?

Apparently not, because Washington (#49) has no income tax.

[Blood of Tyrants]

Twelve years ago, befoer Connecticut imposed an income tax on it's citizens, they were 47th or 48th from the worst taxed state, i.e. before the income tax, it was a pretty decent place to live (tax wise).

[ffusco]

Yeeeeee-Haaaa! No income Tax in The Republic of Texas.

(Texas citizen since 1996)

[angry elephant]

Washington state has no income tax, yet we are the second worst. We have very high property taxes and an 8.6 percent sales tax. We have even higher taxes on restaurant food in the Seattle area to pay for two stadiums that we voted against but were built anyway.

[jammer]

You're right. Glad I read down to your post before I wrote my dismissal of this crap.

[jammer]

When federal taxes are included . . .

This definitely makes per capita earnings relevant, even if the state taxes (sales, property, etc.) are leveled. I would like to see a comparison of dollars collected divided by the population of the state. Period.

[GailA]

Neither does Tennessee. Remember we just through a Tea Party for 3 years in a row to prevent one.

[Billy_bob_bob]

Is it just me, or do these results correlate to population density more directly than just about anything else? It seems like the states in the highest brackets have the largest population centers in the country, where the lowest taxed states have the smallest population centers in the country. Am I missing something here?

[Billy_bob_bob]

Congrats to all of you fine people in Tennessee for standing up to the bureaucrats and fending off their efforts to imposes a state income tax on you. Keep up the good work, and special bonus thanks for not voting Al Gore into office (if he had won his own home state, Florida would have been moot).