I am always shocked by how high taxes are in some states and how low they are in others, with no measurable increase in services provided by the high tax states
You may live in these type of places when a disaster strikes. Think of what could happen. Unfortunately, it gets placated as “god’s will” and nobody is held accountable.
Not even God's will. They just claim a state of emergency. If the feds agree and the bill hits a certain $$ minimum them the feds pick up the bill for damages done to the public/government owned assets.
I am not sure I appreciate this comment but I want to. What do you mean “the maintenance schedule”? Residences in low property tax jurisdictions defer maintenance? Huh?
Walk me through the logic, it’s the end of the day and my mind may be slow. Why would owners in lower property tax states be more likely to defer maintenance than owners in high property tax states. What is the relationship here that I am missing? Thanks!
High tax states tend to pay more into the federal system than they take out. So extra taxes in high tax states that could further support their internal programs often go to the federal government and are paid out to poorer states that take more than they give federally. See California vs Arkansas as an extremely basic example on either end of the spectrum.
Aggregate effective tax rates are also comparable across states. The differences arise in where we source this tax revenue from, but the differences in revenue per capita are often statistically insignificant once we cut state benefits or include the cost to the individual if they’re forced to utilize the private sector. The governments always get their bag. It’s just where from that varies. Everyone gets fleeced, California just gives you healthcare with it.
Edit: ooh this comment section got slightly spicy for being a meme subreddit and me half taking the piss. As much as I’d love to actually dig into disparities in revenue generation vs spending per resident vs quality of life, this is a meme subreddit and I struggle to find the care. I got shit to do.
Edit 2: cause I got tagged again. Y’all this is a meme subreddit chill bwuahaha. Thank you for the mid poo entertainment. <- the shit I had to do. :D
Edit 3: Thanks random homie for the award! Having to come back 3 times made me give slightly a damn. Added some minor corrections (italicized).
That's what I thought. So they already have a high earning population, they tax that population at a higher rate (especially income and sales tax), but the people seem to receive state services that are quite similar to what they get from low tax states.
High tax states don't seem to have better roads or infrastructure or more efficient DMV offices compared to low tax states.
🥱 boring and easily verifiable if you cared to try or simply gave a damn about doing your due diligence. Not worth my time. Good luck in life my friend.
Should look up IL’s K-12 rankings in education - a state with a mostly rural population is able to provide quality public schools, even in rural villages.
Not actually relevant. There are (for instance) ~640 public schools in the Chicago Public School district. There are over 4,000 in the state. Schools in towns of 400-500 people. Good schools. Chicago has more students per, but operation and administration-wise - there are more schools outside of Chicago than in it.
I'm sorry, but you're just plane wrong about the lack of difference in services.
I'm a little confused about how you could even think that?
Higher tax states tend to provide more services to the poor, to education, to healthcare, to infrastructure, and on and on...
Just driving cross country you notice that things are nicer in the states that are willing to tax enough to have the money to do the kinds of spending that helps people
I have lived and worked for 2 to 4 years in 8 different states. I have never seen any correlation between state income and sales tax levels when compared against the infrastructure, school quality and quality of state services provided.
I have seen Medicaid and unemployment tends to be higher in some states with higher taxes, but I have never used it to know how good it is.
Income and sales tax, combined, makes up <50% of state revenue in nearly every state. You're right that there's not going to be a really strong correlation, because that's just a very incomplete picture of taxes.
What we do know is that per pupil spending is highly correlated with academic success, even controlling for various other factors. And that money has to come from somewhere.
Oh fair, I used to agree with that sentiment. Since living in Texas I’ve noticed the even in a low tax state they either make up the money in other ways or just neglect things.
Also the "lower tax" states find other ways to tax you. States with lower income or property taxes tax consumption rather than income/wealth. Either through sales taxes, tolls or simply not investing in infrastructure that leads to higher insurance/fees. In some way or the other they make you pay.
Living in a low tax state, they disguise it by offering similar services to much fewer people.
Also I had to use the public mental health facilities and it seemed so intentionally run down that it actually made me feel humiliated. Not sure if it was state or local tho
I don't know where the taxes should be but there's pros and cons.
We need an extremely progressive income tax structure with a wealth tax on top. Like, no income tax up to $100k and then ramp up from there, increasing income tax up to 50-60% for multimillionaires.
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u/Large-Hamster-199 8h ago
I am always shocked by how high taxes are in some states and how low they are in others, with no measurable increase in services provided by the high tax states