When all state and local taxes are combined - income, property and sales taxes, Ohioans pay 21% more than the national average, according to WalletHub, a financial social network based in Washington, DC. As ideastream's David Molpus reports, that hits some residents harder than others.
WalletHub's study ranks Ohio 44th on the list of best states to be a taxpayer and it tags Ohio as among the five worst states for low-income wage earners when it comes to the percentage of income paid in taxes.
JILL GONZALEZ: "They're paying about 12% of total income straight to taxes whereas if you're a high income earner only 9% of your total income would be going to taxes.
Jill Gonzalez is with WalletHub -the firm that conducted the analysis of government and other data. She says it's sales taxes that hit low-income households disproportionately.
The studies also looked at what people get for their money - a question that often comes to mind this time of year.
GONZALEZ: "You know you don't want higher taxes and horrible services."
On this score, Ohio looks better than most.
GONZALEZ: "So we looked at infrastructure where Ohio ranked 20th; education it ranked 19th; safety it ranked 16th.
Overall, WalletHub ranked Ohio 26th on the quality of its state and local government services.