The Tax Foundation recrently ranked the states according to their tax load, with low taxes generating high rankings. My home state of Vermont did not fare well.
Enter my friend David Goodman (Davidgoodman.net)
who has written several books with his famous radio-host sister, Amy, and whose wife, Sue Minter, is a Vermont state legislator. David found some notable correlations with these rankings. He used them to create this Interesting Facts sheet for Sue, so she could remind people what taxes do.
Do you ever wonder which states offer the worst education, have the highest school dropout rates, have the most hungry children, and have the unhealthiest citizens? It's easy to find out: just consult the newest state rankings issued by the conservative Tax Foundation. The states that were ranked tops for their "business tax climate" and had the lowest tax burdens were the places whose citizens were, in the words of Alabama Gov. Bob Riley, "last in everything good and first in everything bad."
Let's look at Mississippi, the the state hailed by the Tax Foundation as having the lowest tax burden per capita. Here's is what else Mississippi is tops in:
States with highest rate of food hardship: #1
Unhealthiest states in America: #1
Child health indicators: 50th
Public school graduation rate: #45Let's take Nevada, which is ranked #4 for business tax climate for 2010 by the Tax Foundation. What other categories does Nevda lead the country? Here are a few examples:
Crime rate ranking: #1 (branded "most dangerous state in America")
Public school graduation rate: #50 (only half of Nevada's high school students graduate)
States with highest rate of food hardship: #10
Unhealthiest states in America: #4How about Florida? The Tax Foundation ranks it 5th for Business Tax Climate:
Crime rate ranking: #6
Public school graduation rate: #49
States with highest rate of food hardship: #12
Unhealthiest states in America: #5And then there's Vermont, which the Tax Foundation ranks 12th for its tax burden and 41st for its business tax climate
Safest states in America: #2
Smartest State: #1
Overall Child Health Status: #1
Quality of Life (Forbes Magazine): #2
Violent crime: #50Where would you rather live?
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I would love to see this presented with references and a bit more depth/breadth. I would also love it if someone else has already done that work! Any chance?
Eric:
After reading this post I have been looking at the data from the Tax Foundation http://www.taxfoundation.org/publications/show/2181.html and America's Health Rankings.org http://www.americashealthrankings.org/. It looks like it wouldn't be too hard to make some comparisons between the Tax Foundation rankings and health indicators.