Tax Burden › Methodology
Tax Burden Power Rankings — Methodology
Field: 50 states + D.C.. Accountable official: Governor. Cadence: annual. Data retrieved 2026-06-18.
Weights are public so the ranking cannot be called rigged. Each dimension is normalized 0–100 across all ranked states & D.C. (min–max; inverted where lower is better), multiplied by its weight, and summed to the 0–100 composite. A metric that is unavailable for an entity is never estimated — the remaining weights are rescaled and the composite flagged “partial.”
| Dimension | Source | Direction | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total state + local tax burden (% of income) | Tax Foundation, State-Local Tax Burdens 2022 | Lower better ▼ | 30 |
| Property tax (effective rate) | Census ACS (median real-estate tax ÷ median home value) | Lower better ▼ | 15 |
| Income tax (top + effective) pending | Tax Foundation rate-table parser pending | — | 20 |
| Sales tax (state + avg local) pending | Tax Foundation rate-table parser pending | — | 15 |
| Business tax climate index pending | Tax Foundation SBTCI parser pending | — | 12 |
| Excise / gas taxes pending | Tax Foundation parser pending | — | 8 |
Provenance
Primary source: Tax Foundation + U.S. Census Bureau (ACS) · https://taxfoundation.org/ ; https://api.census.gov/data/.