Are we overtaxed??? (Island: sales, insurance, school)

[kentuckydad95]

With all of this talk of the KY budget being broke and we all need to tighten our belts and the such, I sit back and wonder just where KY ranks when it comes to taxes? I mean, we have no grocery tax (mainly), but we pay out the wahzoo for car tax, property tax, state income tax, and in some cities...local income tax. How is the state broke??? I am fixin' (podunk terminology) to go down to the local courthouse and pay...I mean OVERpay tax on my 2003 Taurus with almost 150K on the odometer. Oh, I forgot to mention the 6% sales tax. Are we being taxed to death in this state?

[teebird1012]

I know I'm still young, but try 17% sales tax in Toronto or 14% tax in Los Angeles. 6 or 6.5% is not nearly as bad.

[Toria]

Kentuckydad - you need to try living in some other states for a while.....

[kentuckydad95]

CNNMoney.com: Taxes by state 2005, by rate

Take it for what it's worth.

[nlschr0]

I know that property taxes are very low in KY - the CNN site ranked them in the bottom five.

The auto taxes do seem high to me compared to other states where I've lived...but what we save on property taxes each year makes up for it.

I have no idea about income tax comparisons...

[Davart]

Originally Posted by teebird1012

I know I'm still young, but try 17% sales tax in Toronto or 14% tax in Los Angeles. 6 or 6.5% is not nearly as bad.

That's what National Health Care will get you.


On KY Taxes

You can't base it income tax, property tax and sales tax alone. You must factor in ton of other sale taxes that add up. Like a in some places a "Right of Way tax" on your electrical bill (at least mine, $96/yr), 911 tax, EMS tax, Fire Tax, Library Tax, School tax (on nearly everything), Vice tax, local income tax, road tax, Occupation tax, business tax, coal tax, fuel tax, Insurance Premiums Tax, Telecommunication Tax, Excise Taxes, Utility Gross Receipts License Tax, Personal Property Tax, Inheritance & Estate Tax and oh so my many more you may or may not know about it. You must also figure tax burden against total income.

[Toria]

Originally Posted by kentuckydad95

CNNMoney.com: Taxes by state 2005, by rate

Take it for what it's worth.

I used to live in the #1 state on that list....trust me, KY is a bargain !

[kentuckydad95]

According to the list, it is not a bargain.

[JMT]

Originally Posted by kentuckydad95

With all of this talk of the KY budget being broke and we all need to tighten our belts and the such, I sit back and wonder just where KY ranks when it comes to taxes? I mean, we have no grocery tax (mainly), but we pay out the wahzoo for car tax, property tax, state income tax, and in some cities...local income tax. How is the state broke??? I am fixin' (podunk terminology) to go down to the local courthouse and pay...I mean OVERpay tax on my 2003 Taurus with almost 150K on the odometer. Oh, I forgot to mention the 6% sales tax. Are we being taxed to death in this state?

I'm sorry for popping in here. Unlike some people, I don't normally jump to other states' forums to make negative posts about those states. But I happened to be browsing the Kentucky forum, this topic caught my eye, and in today's paper there's an article about this topic.

The American Legislative Exchange Council just released a study of the economic health of the 50 states that reveals Kentucky is ranked 46th (1st being best, 50th being worst). Kentucky was chided for "its high personal, business and estate taxes, high workers compensation costs and its forced unionism."

The 16 components used to create the rankings:
• Highest marginal personal income tax rate
• Highest marginal corporate income tax rate
• Progressivity of the personal income tax system
• Property tax burden
• Sales tax burden
• Tax burden from all remaining taxes
• Estate tax/Inheritance tax (Yes or No)
• Recent Tax Policy Changes 2005-06
• Debt service as share of tax revenue
• Public employees per 10,000 residents
• Quality of state legal system
• State minimum wage
• Workers’ Compensation Costs
• Right-to-work state (Yes or No)
• Tax/Expenditure Limit
• Education Freedom Index

The bottom 5:
50. Vermont
49. New York
48. Rhode Island
47. Ohio
46. Kentucky
45. Hawaii

The top 5:
1. Utah
2. Arizona
3. South Dakota
4. Wyoming
5. Tennessee

The study can be found here:
http://www.alec.org/fileadmin/newPDF/ALEC_Competitiveness_Index.pdf (broken link)

[nalabama]

A while back I ran into a report done for the state (I think) that concluded that the average local/state/business/etc. taxes and fees in Kentucky were on the average higher for Kentucky than any contigious state. As I recall today, the differences were of any great magnitude, but the report writers felt it was something that Kentucky needed to address if they wished to encourage further economic development. Don't know if I can find it again, but I'll try if it's real important to anybody.