(The Center Square) — Northeast taxpayers continue to shoulder some of the highest state and local tax burdens in the nation, according to a new report.
The report, released on Tuesday by the Washington, D.C.-based Tax Foundation, said on average, New Yorkers paid $12,685 in combined state and local taxes in 2022, the most recent year the foundation studied.
That’s the second-highest tax burden in the nation after the District of Columbia, where taxpayers shelled out an average of $14,574 in per capita tax collections.
New York’s neighbors, Connecticut ($9,718 per capita taxes in FY22) and New Jersey ($9,366), were ranked #3 and #5, respectively, in the Tax Foundation report.
Likewise, Massachusetts was ranked 6th highest in the nation for state and local taxes in FY22, or $9,341 per capita, according to the report. Vermont was ranked 8th highest in the country, with a per capita tax burden of $8,158 in FY22.
The “Live Free or Die” state of New Hampshire doesn’t have a personal income or sales tax, but still has some of the highest property taxes in the nation. It was ranked 29th in the report, with the average taxpayer shelling out $5,949 per capita in taxes in FY22.
The report’s authors pointed out that states with high tax collections per capita, such as New York and Connecticut, “illustrate how geography, economic composition, and policy priorities overlap to produce elevated collection levels.” Connecticut, for example, has a wealthy population combined with a progressive rate individual income tax structure, so it generates high per capita revenue collections.
Nationwide, the average per capita state and local tax burden was $7,109, according to the report, which cited the latest economic data from the Census Bureau.
Property taxes continue to edge out income and sales taxes, generating 27.4% of state and local tax revenue as of FY 2022, according to the report. Most of the taxation occurs at the local level, where property taxes comprise 70.2% of all local government revenue, the report noted.
However, the report’s authors cautioned that higher per capita tax collections are the result of “a complex web of interconnected choices, priorities, and variables—tax rates, tax bases, and the economy on which they’re imposed.”
“Per capita state and local tax collections must be considered within the broader context of other states’ actions,” the noted, as well as “the current economic realities at play in each individual state, and the future policy priorities of its citizens and legislatures as they seek to maximize their utility and provide a better life for their residents.”
