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Ok-Control2273 t1_iu5k70y wrote

Reply to comment by queenofswords24 in What is the best and worst thing about your town? by rabblebowser

Canadian here. Are municipal taxes a huge deal in the States, like they vary a lot? cause I know in general, people say as a state, the tax burden of NH is pretty small, no sales tax and income tax etc.

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Key-Gold9547 t1_iu5lmh7 wrote

Due to no sales tax the property taxes are generally higher then other regions (depending on where you live in NH)

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lellololes t1_iu6iv47 wrote

It depends on the state.

In some states, education is primarily funded at the state level, so the state collects the taxes earmarked for that.

In NH, education is funded at the local level, so depending on the tax base and budgetary needs, the costs per capita vary significantly.

This also applies to other locality based expenses.

The overall tax burden in NH is below average, but it isn't like it is miniscule compared to other states.

In NH, the overall state/local tax burden is 16th lowest in the country, at 9.6%. The lowest is Alaska (Which receives a disproportionate amount of federal support). The highest local/state tax burden is in New York, and the second lowest is Wyoming. Massachusetts is 11.5%, which is ranked 36th lowest.

Overall, more urban states have a generally higher tax burden, the northeast has a higher tax burden, and then some random states in the midwest fill in the upper echelon that isn't New England, NY/NJ Metro, or California. There is a correlation between more democratic states having higher tax burdens, but it is not as strong as one may think. There are other factors at hand, too. The states with higher tax burdens also tend to ship away a larger percentage of their income to the federal government - and some by very significant amounts.

Outside of the major exceptions to the rule, most states are in the 8-12% range.

This is from the Tax Foundation, a right leaning, fiscally conservative organization:

https://taxfoundation.org/tax-burden-by-state-2022/

Regarding donor states versus recipient states, the largest donor state is by far New York. In 2019, NY received $1172 per capita less in federal government money than the state sent to the federal govt. Per capita, Mass. is higher, but NY has been the biggest donor, year over year. Federal spending relative to the states can vary quite strongly on the basis of major expenses like military bases, so it isn't a 100% clean comparison, but generally speaking if a state is getting more federal money per person, its state tax burden is lower.

This report is from the Rockefeller Institue of Government, a nonpartisan but somewhat left leaning entity.

https://rockinst.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/2021-Balance-of-Payments-Report-web.pdf

I believe both of these sources are of adequate accuracy to understand the basic dynamic (though the latter is specific to NY and is much more detailed).

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