The Declaration of Independence asserts that all men (and women) are created equal. This document was written partly in response to the burdensome taxation that the colony felt from Great Britain. And, although we still believe today that all men are created equal, we are certainly not taxed that way. Your taxes can be dramatically higher, based solely on your geographic location. I looked at some basic data to discover which states are the greediest.

First, consider the states with the highest and lowest median household income.

The highest ten in 2008 (in order from highest to lowest) were:

1. New Jersey
2. Maryland
3. Connecticut
4. Alaska
5. Hawaii
6. Massachusetts
7. New Hampshire
8. Virginia
9. California
10. Washington

(Source: Wikpedia)

Now, check out this map of state and local tax burdens:

The top ten highest tax burdens are:

1. New Jersey
2. New York
3. Connecticut
4. Maryland
5. Hawaii
6. California
7. Ohio
8. Vermont
9. Wisconsin
10. Rhode Island

So, what does that tell you? It tells me that the greediest states are New Jersey, Connecticut, California, Hawaii, and Maryland and they are getting a lot of money by burdening their higher-than-average income earning populace with a higher-than-average tax burden. We’re not just talking about tiered taxation but about geographic taxation!

It also tells me that the tax payers in Alaska and New Hampshire are very fortunate: They each are in the top ten average median income-earning states but they are also each in two of the bottom ten tax burden states – New Hampshire has the 46th lowest tax burden and Alaska has the 50th lowest tax burden.