Where are taxes the lowest and highest? Not property taxes. Not income taxes. Not sales taxes. But all taxes.
We set out to attempt to answer that question for a series of Midwest and Eastern states. We looked at all the major taxes from the local level up through the state and added up the bills. Check out the online calculators and analysis that were the result of this work. We called it “11 takes on taxes.”
Here’s something to keep in mind the next time you’re doing a tax story. Is everyone really furious about the level of their tax bill?
I ask this because we came across a surprising – though totally unscientific – finding after putting together a package called Best Places. Best Places gives online readers a chance to express their priorities for a place to live in Greater Cleveland. Based on each user’s priorities, a unique ranking of communities, 1 to 100, is displayed.
The size of the local tax bill ended up being just a mid-level concern, behind features like safe neighborhoods, quality public schools, living close to downtown Cleveland and having a wide variety of municipal recreation facilities. Read what we learned.