It is a (false) blogger legend that Charlottesville blogger Waldo Jaquith stood up at a town hall meeting and exclaimed "TAX ME 'TIL I BLEED!". Obviously, no one likes paying taxes, and the House of Delegates hopes that by raiding education funding we can pay for transportation. Before everyone gets up in arms about how Warner raised our taxes and how we're being taxed dry, there are many, many states that have it worse off than we do.According to the Census Bureau, in 2004 each Virginian paid $1,902.56 in taxes to the state government. Despite the fact that federal taxes have been cut (for the rich), state tax burdens have increased 41% since 1994 (55% in Virginia). With the Bush Administration driving our federal budget into a hole, slapping on new unfunded mandates to states as his country-club Republican buddies get another check from the government, state governments have to pick up the slack. Much hay has been made in Richmond over this. Free-lunchers, decrying this utter nonsense, demand that taxes be freezed, budgetary math be damned.
Problem. Problem. This $1,902.56 gives us a rank of 31st out of 50 states. Liberal bastion Massachusetts ranks 7th at $2,628.26, conservative (?) Wyoming ranks second with $2,973.87. Connecticuit ($2,941.21) ranks 3rd. Even that ranking, however, has a flaw.
Connecticut, while paying more taxes, is a signifigantly richer state, ranking first in per capita income, so it should come as no surprise that their tax burden is higher. As a percentage of per capita income, Connecticut gives 6.48%, dropping from a horrifying third in terms of pure burden to, per capita, twenty-second.
Virginia may be taxed till it bleeds, what with 19 states paying lower in taxes. Unfortunately for the crowd that thinks we can fix roads for free, Virginia pays in state taxes 5.36% of per capita income, ranking forty-fifth. Yes, taxes can be lower. But we must have some perspective here before raiding education to pay for transportation. Robbing Peter to pay Paul, rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic, whatever you want as a metaphor, Virginia's taxes aren't the crisis free-lunchers make it out to be.
Full figures below the fold.
| Taxes per capita | Income per capita | Percentage | |
| Hawaii | 3050.03 | 32160 | 0.0948 |
| Vermont | 2844.96 | 32770 | 0.0868 |
| Wyoming | 2973.87 | 34306 | 0.0867 |
| Minnesota | 2890.9 | 35861 | 0.0806 |
| New Mexico | 2102.88 | 26191 | 0.0803 |
| West Virginia | 2067.85 | 25872 | 0.0799 |
| Delaware | 2862.03 | 35861 | 0.0798 |
| Arkansas | 2029.34 | 25725 | 0.0789 |
| Michigan | 2381.34 | 31954 | 0.0745 |
| Kentucky | 2043.31 | 27709 | 0.0737 |
| Maine | 2202.86 | 30566 | 0.0721 |
| Mississippi | 1766.54 | 24650 | 0.0717 |
| Wisconsin | 2296.2 | 32157 | 0.0714 |
| Idaho | 1898.06 | 27098 | 0.07 |
| California | 2391.65 | 35019 | 0.0683 |
| North Carolina | 1971.48 | 29246 | 0.0674 |
| Nebraska | 2082.27 | 31339 | 0.0664 |
| Rhode Island | 2230.43 | 33733 | 0.0661 |
| Montana | 1753.71 | 26857 | 0.0653 |
| Utah | 1733.15 | 26606 | 0.0651 |
| Oklahoma | 1823.7 | 28089 | 0.0649 |
| Connecticut | 2941.21 | 45398 | 0.0648 |
| Louisiana | 1781.78 | 27581 | 0.0646 |
| Indiana | 1920.26 | 30094 | 0.0638 |
| Washington | 2238.66 | 35299 | 0.0634 |
| Massachusetts | 2628.26 | 41801 | 0.0629 |
| Kansas | 1932.58 | 30811 | 0.0627 |
| Ohio | 1962.93 | 31322 | 0.0627 |
| New York | 2376.77 | 38228 | 0.0622 |
| North Dakota | 1932.22 | 31398 | 0.0615 |
| Pennsylvania | 2045.09 | 33348 | 0.0613 |
| Nevada | 2031.24 | 33405 | 0.0608 |
| South Carolina | 1620.67 | 27172 | 0.0596 |
| Alaska | 2034.51 | 34454 | 0.0591 |
| Arizona | 1673.57 | 28442 | 0.0588 |
| New Jersey | 2415.82 | 41332 | 0.0584 |
| Illinois | 2005.24 | 34351 | 0.0584 |
| Iowa | 1741.66 | 30560 | 0.057 |
| Oregon | 1699.55 | 29971 | 0.0567 |
| Maryland | 2214.49 | 39247 | 0.0564 |
| Florida | 1756.36 | 31455 | 0.0558 |
| Alabama | 1550.99 | 27795 | 0.0558 |
| Georgia | 1633.84 | 30051 | 0.0544 |
| Tennessee | 1617.03 | 30005 | 0.0539 |
| Virginia | 1902.56 | 35477 | 0.0536 |
| Missouri | 1583.28 | 30608 | 0.0517 |
| Texas | 1368.45 | 30222 | 0.0453 |
| South Dakota | 1378.37 | 30856 | 0.0447 |
| Colorado | 1532.26 | 36063 | 0.0425 |
| New Hampshire | 1543.79 | 37040 | 0.0417 |