I find the research this organization does fascinating, which probably says more about me than them, but there it is. The Tax Foundation is the organization that brings you “Tax Freedom Day.” I agree with them on some of their principles about well-designed tax systems, but they have a “less is more” strategy to government that pervades all of their work.
Nevertheless, a report they have just released is pretty interesting. They compare the 50 states on the percentage they spend on various sectors of the economy. It’s worth looking at the summary charts, which are available here:
http://www.taxfoundation.org/publications/show/25452.html
Washington ranks high in the concentration of spending on housing/environment and health, but not on K12. This data is based on 2007 numbers, and I expect it to change dramatically when they look at the 2009 numbers in a few years. We cut everything else much more deeply than we did K12, which will skew the results significantly.
