On: California is the only state to hide its spending – nearly $300B a year

[cmurphycode]

Hmm, I don't quite understand this methodology. This site lists my state, Massachusetts, as having a 3.29% individual income tax burden, but our income tax rate is a flat 5% (no brackets). I'm looking at the exemption list (https://www.mass.gov/service-details/view-massachusetts-pers...) and I can't see how it could possibly make that big of a difference.

[sudosysgen → cmurphycode]

The dependent exemption and old age exemptions definitely look like they could knock out 1.5% of income. If you have an income of 70k and two dependents, you would have an effective tax rate of 2.14%.

[cmurphycode → sudosysgen]

can you clarify how you got that result?

70,000 - 8800 (married filing jointly) - 2000 (two dependents) = $59200 taxable income, $2960 tax bill. An effective rate of 4.22%

To reach the site's stated 3.29%, this family would need to make around 32k a year.

Fwiw, it appears the average household income in Massachusetts is about 80k.