U.S. Residents’ State Taxes Up 7.5% in ’89

Taxpayers paid 7.5% more in state taxes in fiscal 1989 than they did in the previous year, the government reported Tuesday.

The Commerce Department said state tax collections totaled $284 billion in 1989, up from $264 billion a year earlier.

Eight states reported increases of more than 10%, including Oregon, up 22.5%, and California, up 14.2%.

Other increases above 10% included 13.4% in Delaware, 12.7% in Alaska, 11.5% in Idaho, 11.1% in Indiana, 10.8% in Iowa and 10.2% in Kentucky.

Only Utah and South Dakota reported decreases in state tax collections. Utah was down 11.4% while South Dakota dropped 1.7%.

The Commerce Department said the national average state per-capita tax ranged from a high of $2,675 in Alaska to $554 in New Hampshire.

Alaska, New Hampshire and Wyoming have no state income or sales taxes. The severance tax is the primary source of state income in Alaska and Wyoming, while the corporate net income tax is the largest source in New Hampshire.

Other states ranking at the top of the per-capita list were: Hawaii, $1,994; Delaware, $1,679; Massachusetts, $1,534; Connecticut, $1,485; New York, $1,481; Minnesota, $1,470; California, $1,418; Washington, $1,367, and New Jersey, $1,357.

In addition to New Hampshire, other states at the end of the per-capita list were: South Dakota, $655; Texas, $822; Tennessee, $823; Utah, $832; Colorado, $875; Mississippi, $822; Alabama, $889, Nebraska, $900, and Arkansas, $903.

More than half the state tax revenues were collected by just nine states: California, $41.2 billion; New York, $26.6 billion; Texas, $14 billion; Pennsylvania, $12.6 billion; Florida, $12.5 billion, Illinois, $11.8 billion; Michigan, $11.1 billion; Ohio, $10.8 billion, and New Jersey, $10.5 billion.

As usual, general sales and gross receipts taxes were the largest source of state taxes in 1989, up 7.3% to $93.4 billion. Individual income taxes gained 10.7% to $88.7 billion, while corporate net income taxes rose 4.8% to $23.9 billion.