Report: State and local tax burden fell slightly

The report also found that residents of the so-called tri-state area — Connecticut, New Jersey and New York — were hit with the most state and local taxes, with those three states the only places where residents owed those governments more than 12 percent of their income. 

On the other end of the spectrum, Alaska was the runaway winner for the smallest state and local tax burden, at 6.3 percent. Generally speaking, many of the higher-burden states were in the Northeast, while the lower burden states appeared to be concentrated in the South and the West. 

The study asserted that roughly 25 percent of state and local taxes are paid by non-residents, with much of that happening rather naturally. But it also found that some states are making more of a “conscious effort” to raise taxes on out-of-state residents, often by targeting hotel rooms, meals in restaurants and other activities that might disproportionately hit tourists.  

“In fact,” the report states, “many campaigns for tax-raising legislation in the last several years have explicitly advertised the preponderance of non-voting, non-resident payers as a reason for resident voters to accept the tax.”