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1 Curtis S. Dubay & Chris Atkins, Providing an Accurate Measure of Ohio's State and Local Tax Burden 1 (2006)

handle is hein.taxfoundation/ffgaxz0001 and id is 1 raw text is: r:OuU NDAT10N. June 19, 2006 Providing an Accurate Measure of Ohio's State and Local Tax Burden by Curtis S. Dubay and Chris Atkins Fiscal Fact No. 60 The Education Tax Policy Institute (ETPI) issued a report in July 2004 criticizing the Tax Foundation's state and local tax burden estimates for Ohio.' In its report, ETPI examines state and local tax collections reported by four groups, all of which are based on state and local tax collection figures from the Census Bureau: the Federation of Tax Administrators, Congressional Quarterly, the Ohio Department of Taxation and the Ohio Public Expenditure Council. According to the ETPI report, each of the four groups ranked Ohio 20th in per capita tax collections, and either 20th or 22nd as a percentage of income.2 Noting that the Tax Foundation ranks Ohio's state and local tax burden 11 th highest per capita and 3rd highest as a percentage of income, the ETPI report concludes that the Tax Foundation has overstated Ohio's state and local tax burden. The ETPI report's criticism is not persuasive for several reasons. First, the report compares Tax Foundation figures from 2004 with other groups' figures from 2000. Because Ohio's tax burden rose considerably between 2000 and 2004, this is an illegitimate comparison. The correct comparison would be between fiscal year 2000 tax collections from the groups listed above with Tax Foundation tax burden estimates for calendar year 2000. As illustrated in Table 1, when Tax Foundation figures are compared to other sources on a same-year basis, there is substantially less difference between the figures. Table 1: When Compared on a Same-Year Basis, Tax Foundation Figures are Similar to Census Bureau Figures Used by Other Organizations ::Organization Per Capita Rank Percent of Income: Rank Federation of Tax 20 20 Administrators, 2000 .......................... .............................. ................................................. .............................. :Congressional 20 20