What's the Matter with Washington State? [View all]

[ErikJ]

The tax burden on the poor is almost 7 times higher than the rich in Wash state in ratio to income. In contrast, Oregon, Idaho and California its only about 1.5 times higher. So whats the matter with Washington? Maybe they could look at this as a problem with their huge debt?

How State Taxes Put a Bigger Pinch on the Poor

By Bruce Watson
Posted 6:00AM 02/13/12
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Every State Puts More Burden on Low Income Workers

And the differences aren't minor: In the median state, Mississippi, the poorest 20% of workers pay almost twice as high a percentage of their income as the richest 1%. In Washington state, the worst, they pay 17.3% of their income -- more than six times as much as the top 1%. What's more, this is true in all states -- even those that don't have an income tax. In fact, states that rely on sales taxes to make ends meet tend to hit the poor even more harshly, as low-income workers spend most of their paychecks on necessities.

When state taxes are factored into our overall tax percentage, the results are striking. In Washington state, for example, adding 17.3% to the 4% effective income tax rate yields a whopping 21.3% tax on income. While still lower than the 27.7% total tax rate of a top income bracket worker, it's still pretty shocking.

The gap gets even wider when one considers the impact of historically low dividend and capital gains tax rates. For a Washington state billionaire like Bill Gates, most of whose income comes from investments, it's likely that his overall tax rate is lower than that of a bottom-tier worker.

Throughout its history, America's tax rate has been progressive -- the more you make, the greater a percentage you pay into the system. The main exception to that rule have been Social Security and Medicare: Since they're capped at a certain income level, the poor pay a larger percentage of their incomes into those programs than the rich. The political justification for this is that the poor take greater advantage of these programs than the rich, and should therefore pay more.

http://www.dailyfinance.com/2012/02/13/how-state-taxes-put-a-bigger-pinch-on-the-poor/

From worst to best-Washington is the worst in the nation. Followed by mostly Red states. And they are a solid Blue state?