The different tax brackets do make things more confusing, but You still seem to be looking at the data and seeing things that simply aren't there. The numbers

The different tax brackets do make things more confusing, but You still seem to be looking at the data and seeing things that simply aren't there. The numbers show that a poor person in Texas pays more than a poor person in California with the same income. The average income of the bottom 20% is 13,000 and they pay an average of 13% in total taxes for an average tax burden of 1690. The average income of the bottom 20% in California is 14,300 and they pay an average of 10.5% in total taxes for an averagr tax burden of 1501.5 Thus the bottom 20% in Texas not only make less money but then also have to pay more total taxes than their higher income counterpart in California. For poor people Texas is a higher tax state than California.