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New report shows Ohioans pay more taxes than most other states
BRANDON KLEIN
Special to the Legal News
Published: March 28, 2019
As the Ohio legislature weighs the pros and cons of Gov. Mike DeWine's proposal to increase the gasoline tax before the end of this month, a recent study found that the state has the ninth-highest tax rates in the nation.
WalletHub calculated the effective total state and local tax rates on the median U.S. household in Ohio as 13.05 percent, costing such households $7,580.
The total tax rates would cost the median Ohio household $6,247 annually. Ohio's ranking improves with cost of living adjustments, placing 21st overall.
"Taxpayers in the most tax-expensive states, for instance, pay three times more than those in the cheapest states," said John Kiernan, the study's author. "Surprisingly, though, low income taxes don't always mean low taxes as a whole."
Ohio's calculated total tax rates are based on the financial website's analysis of each state's real-estate, vehicle property, income and sales and estate taxes.
Illinois had the highest total tax rates at 14.9 percent, followed by Connecticut (14.41 percent), Pennsylvania (13.78 percent), New York (13.74 percent), Nebraska 13.37 percent), Kansas (13.35 percent), Wisconsin (13.32 percent) and Rhode Island (13.21 percent). Iowa would round out the top 10 states the highest total tax rates at 12.92 percent.
On the other hand, Alaska had the lowest total tax rates at 5.7 percent, followed by Delaware (6.14 percent), Montana (7.07 percent), Wyoming (8.05 percent), Nevada (8.2 percent), Utah (8.39 percent), Florida (8.44 percent), Idaho (8.56 percent), Colorado (8.65 percent) and Tennessee (8.73 percent).
Ohio's effective real-estate tax rate was nearly 5.25 percent, costing residents $3,042 per year and ranking 39th among all states.
The state was among the group that had no vehicle property tax and its effective income tax rate was 3.14 percent, costing residents $1,822 per year and ranking eighth highest among all states.
"Taxes play some role in people's choices of where to live, but the role that taxes play varies by age group and education level. Highly skilled, highly educated workers find the best job matches in East and West coast cities," said Michael J. Wasylenko, an economics professor at Syracuse University, in a statement. "Tax policy does not have a strong influence on workers' location choices and plays a minor role in firm locations as well. Taxes can play a stronger role for firms when a firm chooses between nearby locations in two different states.
"In this case, the other factors important to firms - availability of a trained workforce, for example, - does not vary among nearby location in different states. Firms can take taxes into account in making its choice."
He added: "Firms do not typically relocate from Massachusetts to Florida for tax reasons."
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