Taxes and Minnesota. One area we are in the top ten.

There are many things we want to be known for as a state but one we don't is high taxes.  That invariably means financial burdens are shifted onto families.

The latest tax burden report is out from the Tax Foundation.  They found Minnesota ranked 7th highest nationally in terms of state and local tax burden with 10.8% of income paid in taxes.  The highest is New York at 12.8%.  The lowest is Alaska at 7%.

We rank 7th nationally in tax burden per capita.  And 14th in per capita income.

Here are some of their key findings.

Since 2000, state and local burdens have increased from 9.3 percent to 9.9 percent. During the 2010 fiscal year, however, burdens remained fairly stable, only decreasing slightly from their 2009 levels.

In 2010, the residents of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut paid the highest state-local tax burdens in the nation. These are the only three states where resident taxpayers forego over 12 percent of income in state and local taxes.

Residents of Alaska, who have consistently been the least taxed state for nearly three decades, again paid the lowest percentage of income in 2010 at just 7.0 percent. The next lowest-taxed states were South Dakota, Tennessee, and Louisiana.

State-local tax burdens are very close to one another and slight changes in taxes or income can translate to seemingly dramatic shifts in rank. For example, the 20 mid-ranked states, ranging from Oregon (16th) to North Dakota (35th) only differ in burden by just over one percent.

While some studies aim to tally the total revenues collected from state and local governments, this study moves the focus from the tax collector to the taxpayer by focusing on tax burdens.