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#1 again: NY leads nation in taxes, new report says

A new report gave New York the title as the most taxed state in the nation.

ALBANY -- Another new report gave New York the title as the most taxed state in the nation.

The findings Tuesday by 24/7 Wall Street for USA Today showed New York leading the pack when it came a variety of taxes.

Here's some of the rankings for New York:

• Taxes paid as percentage of income: 12.7%

• Income per capita: $59,563 (4th highest)

• Income tax collections per capita: $2,208 (2nd highest)

• Property tax collections per capita: $2,581 (5th highest)

• General sales tax collections per capita: $662 (14th lowest)

The report relied largely on statistics from the Tax Foundation, the fiscally conservative think tank in Washington that has long ranked New York as having among the highest taxes in the nation.

The figures, though, are skewed toward states with higher income, 24/7 Wall Street pointed out.

Tax burdens in the 2012 tax season were as low as 6.5 percent in Alaska and as high as 12.7 percent in New York.

The findings said that states with lower-income residents tend to have lower tax burdens.

So 12 of the 15 states with the highest-tax burden had household incomes higher than national average of $49,246 a year.

And the three states with the highest highest tax burdens, New York, Connecticut and New Jersey, were all among the highest in income.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo's office panned the report, saying the governor has lowered income-tax rates, slowed the growth in property taxes with a tax cap and cut business taxes.

In recent weeks, Cuomo has railed against the federal tax law approved in December that would limit New Yorkers' deduction of state and local taxes.

“This is old data," Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi said.

He said the report "doesn’t reflect all of Governor Cuomo’s reforms that led to the lowest middle class tax rates in more than 70 years, the lowest manufacturing tax rate since 1917, the lowest corporate tax rate since 1968, and a property tax cap, freeze and cut – all progress that federal Republicans have sought to undo with a “tax reform” that increased income and property taxes on New Yorkers.”

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