Today I get this email:
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Atrios is a statistical cherry picker.
>From the Tax Foundation
Corporate Income Taxes Georgia 10th lowest - Mass 6th highest. (not all
states levy corporate income taxes)
Gasoline Taxes - Georgia lowest in nation - 50th, Mass 21st
Property Taxes (per capita) - Georgia 29th - Mass 7th
Sales Taxes - Georgia 30th -- Mass 29th
Cigarette Taxes - Georgia 44th -- Mass 1st
In our lovely federal system, individual state and local governments have great flexibility with respect to how they choose to raise revenue, both in the particular tax instruments they use and in the relative share raised by state versus local municipalities. Some states rely more heavily on some instruments than others, and the degree to which local governments are responsible for raising their own revenue is also going to have an impact on which taxes tend to be higher or lower.
But, here's the deal, oh future Nobel prize winner -- only in the fevered groping dreams of a wingnut could this bit of correspondence be thought to "refute" in any way what I wrote.