Comparing tax burdens, New York at (or near) the top of the list

In a line of attack that Empire State Republicans have deployed over many election cycles, Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman has focused on New York’s tax climate as he mounts a campaign to unseat Gov. Kathy Hochul.

The Long Island Republican said New York ranks No. 1 in the nation for highest individual tax burden.

Given the state’s notorious tax reputation, we were curious if it indeed has the highest tax burden in the country. 

There are several ways to measure a tax burden, and different analyses result in different rankings. Some rankings include property and sales taxes. Some just one or the other. 

We started with the Tax Foundation, which completes extensive studies of tax policies in every state. The last study of state and local tax burden was from 2022, and New York was at the top of the list, with an effective tax rate of 15.9%. The conservative-leaning think tank defined "tax burden" as state and local taxes paid by residents divided by that state’s share of net national product. This study took into account tax incidence, which measures which entity pays a tax, both under the law and in the economy. 

Though this data is older, this analysis "comes closest to answering the question of which state actually has the highest burdens on residents, and on that, New York is unequivocally highest," said Jared Walczak, senior fellow at the Tax Foundation. 

The think tank also measured how much state and local governments collect per person in every state, and it published its findings in 2025. The nationwide average of state and local tax burden per capita was $7,109, according to U.S. Census data from 2022. In the Tax Foundation’s study, the District of Columbia was the costliest place to live when it comes to local taxes, collecting $14,974. But New York was the costliest state, with the highest combined state and local per capita tax burden at $12,685. California came in second. 

Another study from the Tax Foundation found that when tax collections are calculated as a percentage of personal income, New Mexico came in at the top, and New York placed second.  

When individual income taxes are taken into account, New York ranks second behind Oregon. It’s worth noting the Beaver State has no sales tax. 

"There isn’t just one single way to define state tax burdens," Walczak said. "But by a measure that accounts for tax incidence, New York has the highest tax burdens - and by any conceivable measure, it’s at or near the top," he said.  

WalletHub, a personal finance company, found that New York has the second-highest tax burden in the country in a study it published in April. The site looked at the proportion of total personal income that people pay in state and local taxes, including personal income, sales, excise and property taxes.   

New York’s overall tax burden as a share of personal income was 13.56%, while Hawaii had the highest, at 13.92%. Considering only personal income taxes, New York is first, at 5.76%. Counting only property taxes, Vermont ranks first for that burden, with New York fourth. The total sales and excise tax burden rankings has New York at No. 22.  

New York has the highest tax burden when the state and local personal income tax revenues are divided by the personal income of all the people living in that state, based on U.S. Census data from 2022, said Aravind Boddupalli, a senior research associate at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. 

But these rankings miss the fact that there are high-income earners in New York, and that New York has a relatively progressive income tax structure, meaning that people who earn more pay more in income taxes. The metrics don’t measure fairness, he said. 

"There are a lot more people with a lot more resources in New York, and the tax burden metric measures revenue raising, not necessarily who pays how much," he said. 

After Blakeman made his claim, the Citizens Budget Commission, a centrist New York-based think tank, found that state and local governments in New York collect the highest taxes per person and the second highest per $1,000 of personal income, based on 2023 data. 

In 2018, when Republican Marc Molinaro ran for governor, he claimed that New York had "among the highest tax burdens of any state in the nation," and PolitiFact rated it True. 

We reached out to Blakeman’s spokesperson but did not hear back. The state Republican Party responded, saying that it uses the Tax Foundation competitiveness index, which in 2026 ranked New York the least competitive state. Individual taxes, for which New York ranks 50th, is part of that analysis. 

Our ruling 

Tax analysts have found that the tax burden in New York is at the top, or near the top, depending upon how you calculate tax burden. An expert said that one of the best analyses shows New York "unequivocally highest," though the data is nearly four years old. A different study from nearly a year ago shows New York at second place in a contest no state wants to win. 

Blakeman’s statement is accurate, but needs some context, so we rate it Mostly True.