North Carolina could take a lesson from this

Headline from a New Hampshire newspaper: "New Hampshire residents pay least in local taxes nationally". I still read three NH newspapers online every morning. I ran across this tidbit today. I find it amazing that North Carolina is running a budget revenue overage, but is still looking to raise some taxes and put in toll roads. On top of all of that, the school systems are still towards the bottom of the national averages in performance. Yet, we continually hear about the need for more money for schools.

NH is consistently at the top of school performance yet spend less per capita per student than any other state. Also, this article shows that they have the lowest local tax burden in the county.

What can we learn from this? There are many government services we can live without and money is not the only answer to public school problems.

Here is the article:

MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — New Hampshire residents pay less of their income in state and local taxes than people living anywhere else in the country, according to 2004 data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The rankings were obtained by comparing total personal income in each state with the total taxes raised by state and local governments.

"New Hampshire again has the lowest tax burden in the country, even with property taxes and statewide property taxes. That's good news for the state," said economist Dennis Delay, who calculated the rankings from the Census Bureau data.

New Hampshire has had the lowest tax burden for several years in a row, he said.

"It's also an indication the state is very frugal and tries to do a lot without the same resources other states have for revenue," Delay said.

State residents pay 12.3 percent of their personal income in taxes, while the national average is 15.1 percent.

The next lowest tax burden is in Tennessee, where residents pay 12.6 percent of their income in taxes. The two states are the only one where residents pay under 13 percent of their income in taxes.

Alaska residents pay the most, 27.3 percent of their income, followed by Wyoming at 21.3 percent.

In New England, Maine residents pay the most — 17.3 percent of their income — while Vermont comes in next, with residents paying 16.2 percent. Rhode Island, where residents pay 15.3 percent of their income, is in the middle.

Connecticut, at 13.5 percent, and Massachusetts, at 13.7 percent, were among the 10 states with the lowest tax burdens, ranking at No. 47 and No. 44, respectively.