You can get a full list of state income and sales tax rates. Makes for interesting comparisons. It should be Minnesotax, apparently. And Californication has a new meaning for me.<br><br>

Lot's of "progressive programs"= High taxes. That's your punishment for having a job.<br><br>

Massachusetts actually has an option to voluntarily pay a higher rate. But, surprisingly the liberal MA citizens do not opt to pay higher taxes. Including a certain Senator who's first order of business will be to raise taxes.<br><br><br><br>

i am liberal and i wouldn't opt to pay higher taxes voluntarily. i would support higher taxes to give families in the lower middle class categories some tax relief and to fund education better. <br><br>speaking of taxes for education...just last week or so, we had a measure up for vote to provide more funds for special education. this added about $115 a year to the average $200,000 home in taxes. this was a county wide vote (approx 600,000 people). it passed, even though the bulk of the money being raised was leaving the rich districts and going to the city schools (e.g., grand rapids). what i found heart warming was that the "wealthy" districts (including mine -- east grand rapids) were the districts that stood to lose the most with the highest priced houses, yet they voted in favor of the tax more than any other district. our house is certainly not one of the richer houses (fwiw)...you guys have seen it (i live in the slums of the wealthy district -- just two blocks from where aftertensoftware lived when he lived here). <br><blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr><p>Strong support in the wealthiest suburbs and within Grand Rapids helped a countywide school tax overcome opposition on Tuesday in just more than half of Kent County's 20 school districts.<br><br>Wide margins in Grand Rapids (very poor district, but stood to gain the most by far), Forest Hills (wealthy district), Rockford (upper middle class district) and East Grand Rapids (wealthy district) were more than enough to put it over the top, offsetting losses in Kenowa Hills, Grandville (very conservative suburb), Wyoming (poor suburb) and eight other districts.<p><hr></blockquote><p><a href="http://www.mlive.com/news/grpress/index.ssf?/base/news-13/1077723966273740.xml">link</a><br>i liked this quote from the superintendent in one wealthy district:<br><blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr><p>"Oh man, I am happy for Grand Rapids," Forest Hills Superintendent Michael Washburn said.<p><hr></blockquote><p>i love to see people coming together for education. <br><br>