I am very pleased that President Obama has become a Liberal

[pampango]

105. True but those red states with no income tax rely on more regressive sales and property taxes.

What makes a regressive system

The taxation systems in the 10 most regressive states shared a number of features, the authors found. Four lack personal income taxes, while five have virtually flat (or non-progressive) personal income taxes. Six of the states rely too heavily on sales taxes, which are regressive because consumption and incomes do not rise in lockstep. (Consumption accounts for a larger share of income for low-wage earners than high-wage earners.)

As the chart below shows, income taxes are typically the most progressive, on average, while property taxes are slightly regressive. Sales and excise taxes tend to be very regressive, since spending as a share of income tends to fall as income rises.

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While Delaware’s income tax is not particularly progressive, it’s heavy reliance on income taxes instead of consumption taxes make its system the least regressive overall. Though not comparable to a state, D.C. ranks as the next least regressive tax system, followed by California, Oregon, Montana and Vermont. D.C., Minnesota and Vermont make their tax systems fairer by providing generous refundable Earned Income Tax Credits to lower-wage earners.

Of course, the way a tax is structured matters, too. An income tax’s progressiveness is often determined by two factors: a tax rate that gradually rises with income and the availability of refundable tax credits targeted at the lowest earners. As the chart below shows, while California, Louisiana and Alabama all levy personal income taxes, California’s is far more progressive.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2015/01/14/how-state-tax-systems-unfairly-burden-low-income-earners/

Thanks for the links, particularly the WaPo one. I excerpted parts of it above. They were quite informative.

The CNN link showed the difference between Oregon and Washington. Oregon was high (#3) on the income tax ranking but on the bottom (#50) for sales taxes. Washington was about the opposite: no income tax and high (#3) in sales taxes.

In general, 8 of the top 10 states in terms of sales tax are Southern red states - Washington and Hawaii being the exceptions - while only 2 of these Southern red states (Kentucky and North Carolina) were in the top 10 in terms of income taxes.