What it really means is that the conservative states are the Free Loading Welfare States that do not pay their fair share. They are subsidized by smarter progressive states . Especially Texas and Alaska who are blessed with oil and gas.

Say it loud and proud Liberal! People that don't pay their "fair share!" You sound like Obama! Wake up! You are in dreamland!

Your fair share of someone else's money is still zero! Taxation is theft.

Nice to see Indiana tinted Green well surrounded by red high tax states. Lol i guess we really are the beacon of hope in the midwest. Thanks Mitch Daniels and Mike Pence for continuing to cut our taxes further and further :)

Geeko troll somewhere else. Remember Michigan was the ONLY state to lose population in the past 10 years. Illinois has stopped growing and so has Ohio. In addition kentucky is smaller than Indiana. Indiana is growing faster than any state in the northeast.

yet Indiana still has a low population compared to the midwest states around them. Looks like Indiana won with a lower tax rate but people still do not want to live there as they feel quality of life counts for something as well.

Gross numbers do not really mean a lot. Within states there is tremendous variation in things like property taxes or sales taxes. In Illinois, for example, it is much more expensive to live In Cook, DuPage, Kane, Will and Winnebago Counties than the rest of the state. The data needs to be further broken down by county to have much meaning.

If you still live in Illinois your best bet is to move to Indiana sooner rather than later.
Someone is going to have to pay off that 200 BILLION dollar pension liability. Hint its going to be taxpayers.

"Higher taxes can also mean more social services and benefits for residents, so their impact on metrics like quality of life and social mobility may make the expense worth it."

Except the people that pay and the people that benefit are not the same people.

That assumes that you never, ever receive those services, and that there is no social gain to having those services - like in lower crime rates, levels of hunger, higher scores on tests for those in school, etc. We do live in a society where others do county for something and have value; it is a cost of living in a civilized society that something goes toward helping those who cannot help themselves.

Governments do not exist "outside of" or "apart from" the General Market. The General Market is, by definition, the sum of all human economic activity and as such, includes every transaction humans engage in. "Governments" of course, do not have concrete existence. The term is just a description of a relationship among individuals. The particular, peculiar relationship of "government" is one of economic exploitation. There are two basic types of transactions in the Market: two-sided (or voluntary) transactions, in which all parties engage willingly and one-sided (or non-voluntary) transactions, in which one or more parties are coerced by the threat or actual use of force. Due to the nature of our current (and historically, most) systems of taxation, "governments" engage in exclusively one-sided transactions. Governments and their employees have no magic. They aren't gods or even magicians, and thus cannot create resources out of thin air, but must use the very same resources available in the Market to all of us already. Since people are already using their resources to meet their highest needs and wants, when "governments" forcibly take money through taxation, it cannot help but to replace a more highly desired product or service with a lesser desired one. "Governments" do not (CANNOT!) provide services except at the expense of one which was more highly desired. After all, if people had really wanted the services that "governments" provide, why weren't they already, previous to "government" force, voluntarily spending their money on them? After all, nothing was/is preventing people from building schools, providing uneconomic insurance schemes to young people or those with pre-existing conditions or providing any other service that "governments" provide. "Governments" can't provide anything that we can't have without them, despite the fact that that is a shocking statement, it remains true.

" On the other hand, New York ranked dead last—its residents pay 39 percent above the national average. California is right behind at 37 percent above the average, followed by Nebraska's 36 percent."

Does it bother anyone else that this statement is not true? It's close, but is clearly a misinterpretation of the data. Wallethub says it's "not their fault" if the reporter didn't read (or understand) their methodology.

Journalistic code of ethics:

” — Test the accuracy of information from all sources and exercise care to avoid inadvertent error. Deliberate distortion is never permissible.”

Nebraska, in particular, because their state-local average tax burden is actually BELOW the national average.

I am color blind- your map is cruel!!

All Taxation is theft. Pure and simple. Theft by many (government) is no more justified than theft by one. To take from one without their consent is theft.

No it is not. Taxation is the cost of living in a society that has needs for the benefit of all. You have given your consent by living in this country. If you think government has no value at all, feel free to purchase your own island and set up your own country.

Taxation doesn't benefit "all." It only benefits the thieves who are allowed to use coercion to obtain other's rightful money. Taxation is theft and tax evasion is self defense.

My being born in a specific geographical area should not entitle others to take my wealth by force. No amount of rationalization on your part will change that. Force is force. Theft is theft. And I don't consent to theft of my property by force. The "love it or leave it" argument is very overplayed, by the way.

Are you really equating taxes with force? You have the option of moving somewhere where there are no taxes.

Are denying that taxation isn't force? Of course it's force. And again the love it or leave it argument holds no water with me.

Taxation is theft. Taxes are the price we pay for having NOT built a truly civilized society. Taxation rests upon COERCION: the threat of or the actual use of force.

This article ranks Washinton State at 6th highest taxed state (good). However, there is something VERY wrong with this "analysis." While Washington State does not have an income tax, it has very high property tax, sales tax, fees including vehicle registration, business tax and occupations tax.

"For instance Ohio and North Dakota have really bad winters sometimes which throws the entire list off because of utility bills"
Nebraska has really hot summers/cold winters. The key is take advantage of the Level Payment plan on all of your utilities. You pay a fixed average of the previous 12 months that re-calculates every year. I can see my breath in the summer and those few months of really high a/c bills are spread out over the cold months when my Electricity is pretty low.
Actually, I was surprised to see NE so high on this list! Overall cost of living is very low in NE compared to many other states...

I bought a farm in WV, 5 times the land, 1700+ s.f. v. 1300 s.f in NY. Property taxes 1/6th what I pay in NY. Anyone looking for a rural home in western NY? Let me know. Or, check out Rochester, NY Craigslist.

Social costs are merely failsafe. If you have no need to ever use them, you end up the sucker paying for everyone else.

Just like car insurance... one of the biggest rackets EVER!

You're getting warmer. This "study" has been universally misinterpreted.

Clue: there is subtle but vital difference between

"the average tax paid by Americans"

and

"the tax paid by the average American"

The first is a simple math problem.. total revenue divided by population. It's called per capita tax and you can find the latest data on TaxFoundation website, or ITEP. nationally, the average is a little over $4,000 for state and local taxes.

The second statement describes the "average taxpayer" ($66,000 income, $174,000 house, $17,000 car, etc.) THEN calculates how much that specific hypothetical individual would pay in any individual state as stated in your article.

You were SO CLOSE when you described the profile of the "average American".

BUT

in the next paragraph, " Wyoming had the lowest taxes.........."

Is ONLY TRUE FOR THE TAXPAYERS FITTING THE STUDY PROFILE.

please see the breakdown for ALL Wyoming tax levels:

http://www.itep.org/pdf/who...

The fourth quintile, which roughly equates to the Wallethub "average American" profile, has about a 5% state/local tax burden. But look at the lowest quintile, 8.2%...not so good. And the top 1% of earners...1.6% tax burden. Apparently a nice place to be rich.

And, New York is NOT dead last. That distinction still belongs to Connecticut. New York is only dead last for those "average profile" taxpayers.

Wallethub should have been MUCH more clear in stressing their methodology and the limitations of their data.

For comparison, check the ITEP link above, the TaxFoundation (they just came out with the latest data, I think) and search for the Washington DC comparison of state/local tax burdens in major cities.

I'm not saying wallethub is wrong, it's just misleading.

Actually, with just a cursory glance at California Wallethub data, I suspect their data may be wrong, too. Wouldn't hurt to get a peer review.

Sadly, the article made many mistakes and is misrepresenting the mathematical truth. I spent an entire day working through data and North Dakota was actually the best state to live and work in, albeit by only roughly $150.00 annually. I took cost of living, state taxes, and mean annual household income into the calculations. Wyoming came in a very close second place. The top-ten states are ND, WY, DC, VA, TX, CO, NE, IL, WA, and SD, in that order. Just because you have a zero-tax state, does not mean it is the place to live and work. Cost of living and average incomes play a much larger role in the end analysis. :/

Can you post your analysis with source data?

Russel
Keep quiet we do not want more people here in Fla. Vist, send all your money and get to hell out..

----Higher taxes can also mean more social services and benefits for
residents, so their impact on metrics like quality of life and social
mobility may make the expense worth it.----

Small problem there, failing logic.....................those taking advantage of those "social services" are generally not paying taxes.......so......the only 'expense' is to those footing the bill.

Hey all do you see one common thing in all the high state tax states, they are states controlled by liberal progressive democrats and nothing will change because those states will continue to elect democrats, and raise taxes. They no nothing more than spend and tax. I moved from new York to florida and increase my take home pay by 60%.

NY to VA here.

We got slammed in PA with a new transprotation bill with higher fees for gas, inspection and registration. If our leaders would get some money from the gas drillers and frackers it might has lessened these increases.
We're also one of the leading states that pay the highest unemployment and our motto for welfare, "if in doubt hand it out." On a recent viist to western PA, all you see is every one on disability or welfare so we all know where these taxes are going.

Left NY many years ago. Sucks big time. As for social mobility it is non extant. Family members living in tiny homes paying 6-8 K a year in prop taxes. Try moving up to the average home and the tax goes up to 12K mobility my ass.

I'm in mass, taxachusetts is dead on accurate. That map has a MAJOR flaw..

"Higher taxes can also mean more social services and benefits for
residents, so their impact on metrics like quality of life and social
mobility may make the expense worth it."

The rich a.k.a. anyone still with a job is hammered with taxes and fees to pay for things like free cars for those on welfare. Yes they really give away free cars with free insurance here as long as you refuse to work. Google it. The state is also dropping a fortune to install fiber optic lines everywhere so ISP's don't have to pay to put down infrastructure, corporate welfare is just as rampant.

And the few paying taxes are fleeing as fast as possible, this state loses "taxpayers" to the tune of $1 billion a year for the last decade only to be replaced by those showing up for the free everything. Refusing to work pays the equivalent of $52K/yr here, again google it. Property values are plummeting because no ones volunteering to move in to support the army of freeloaders that only grows.

FL No. 4. Yes!

The low tax states are those with overwhelmingly white populations. There are a few exceptions, but not many. No surprise there.

AL, MS, SC...?

Pulling the race card when there's nothing of value to say. Typical.

What about his comment suggests anything "liberal"?

You got two votes. I guess they were the only ones who thought you had anything of value to say.

OOOOH, votes. Yep, I sure use those as a barometer of quality. Did you notice NE on there? Really low caucasion population there, huh? Take your divisive and illogical garbage somewhere else.

I agree - the whiter the better for having less of your life confiscated. This from a (male) South Dakota resident who is now living in Asia. (hint: lots of people trying to confiscate things from me here.)

There aren't just a few exceptions. I fail to find any correlation at all. Nice try at making this a racial article, though.

Whats your point? This is an article about taxes. If you want to look at disparities in criminal statistics, compare men vs women. However, I don't see too many people trolling random message boards trying to spread fear about MEN.

Apparently, three times more people agree with me than agree with you. Nice try at attempting to evade the real issue.