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Tax Burden by State (2022)
- wolverine876 3y agoWho is the Tax Foundation? It's not a crime to be partisan, but in the realm of policy there is a lot of partisanship hidden behind noble or innocous names, and it's good to know who one is reading. I looked around their website for awhile but couldn't find anything. Particularly, who funds them (and their 50+ employees)? https://taxfoundation.org/about-us/staff-and-board/ https://taxfoundation.org/about-us/staff-and-board/
- wolverine876 3y agoThe information is useful, but we seem to always look only at the tax side, which I think is a misleading picture - from the individual perspective, like a company that looks only at its expenses. Taxes are effectively investments; they are one way we get together and pay for public goods. Also, they omit fees - we can pay for a road via tax or via a usage fee, for example. I think the first step is to paint the broader picture: States with lower tax and fee revenue must fund the same things as states with higher revenue: Infrastructure, education, pensions, healthcare, public safety, basic state functions (licensing, etc.), etc. Where does the money come from? Perhaps the cash flow statement would look something like the state's tax and fee revenue, plus its net from other states (via the federal government) on the income side, and then its investment in public goods and services on the expense side. Again, the OP is useful, but I never see the full picture.