Overall tax rates stuck in top half for 20 years

Aug. 8 - Raleigh: North Carolina's overall state and local tax burden has remained about the same-9.7 percent or 9.8 percent-for some 20 years, according to a new report from the Tax Foundation. Each state's combined state-local tax burden was ranked, with Alaska once again the tax-friendliest state in the country. Its overall state-local tax burden was 6.4 percent in 2008, while North Carolina's total rate was 9.8 percent, putting it just above the nation as a whole. North Carolina ranked 20th overall, while South Carolina ranked 45th, with a modest 7.9 percent tax burden, helping shed light on the flow of employers from parts of Charlotte to the suburbs of northern South Carolina. New Jerseyans paid the highest taxes, with an 11.8 percent burden this year, up from 10.9 in 1998. South Carolina's tax burden actually lightened during those 10 years. It was ranked 35th highest back in 1998, with a 9.1 percent overall tax burden. In 1998, North Carolina's overall rate of taxation was 9.7 percent; in 1988 it was 9.8 percent.