When it comes to tax burden, Nebraska in middle of pack

Nebraskans like to complain about taxes as much as anyone, but figures from the Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan tax research group based in Washington, the state is as much in the middle when it comes to taxation as when it comes to geography.

* Tax Freedom Day, the day when Americans have earned enough to pay off their total tax bill for the year, arrives on April 7 for Nebraskans, two days before the national Tax Freedom Day.

That's later than South Dakota (March 29) but earlier than Wyoming (April 11).

* For state and local taxes, we're ranked 17th highest, just above the national average of 9.7 percent. Nebraskans pay $3,983 per capita in state and local taxes.

* Nebraska ranks 33rd in the Tax Foundation's State Business Tax Climate Index, which compares corporate, individual, sales, unemployment, residential and commercial property taxes.

* Cornhusker state residents pay personal income taxes according to four separate brackets, with a top rate of 6.84 percent, kicking in at an income level of $27,000. That puts Nebraska, among states levying an individual income tax, at 18th highest nationally. In 2008, we collected $972 per person, 19th highest nationally.

* Our corporate taxes come in two brackets, with a top rate of 7.81 percent starting at $100,000, 19th in the nation among states that have such a tax. However, in 2008, we only collected $131 per capita, which ranked 28th nationally.

* Nebraska's 5.5 percent sales tax is slightly below the national median of 5.85 percent, and combined state and local general selective sales tax collections were $1,310 per person, 28th highest nationally.

* Our gasoline tax, adjusted quarterly, is 27.7 cents per gallon or 19th nationally, and our cigarette taxes, 64 cents a pack, is 37th highest nationally.

* Nebraska collected $1,268.72 per capita in local property taxes in 2006, the latest year available, and $1.41 per capita in state property taxes, putting us at 17th highest nationally with $1,270.13 per capita in combined state and local property taxes.

Lastly, while anti-Washington talk is just as popular in Nebraska coffee shops as anywhere, the fact that federal government sends us more money than we send it is seldom brought up.

For each of their dollars of federal taxes collected in 2004, Nebraskans were sent about $1.10 in federal spending. That puts Nebraska in the middle at 25th nationally, and is an increase from 1995, when Nebraskans were almost even at $1.01 in federal spending for each dollar in federal taxes collected.

Neighboring states rank from $1.53 in South Dakota to $0.81 in Colorado.

As long as so many of us have a stake in the current political system, sweeping changes in the current system will never be easy.