CLARKSBURG, W.Va. (WBOY) — If you’ve ever driven down a pothole-filled road past vacant buildings covered in graffiti, you’ve probably wondered to yourself, “Where are my taxes going?”
According to a survey by the personal finance website WalletHub, you’re in the majority if you’ve wondered that. It found 73% of taxpayers think the government doesn’t spend their tax dollars wisely.
WalletHub further studied which state residents see the best return on investment for their tax money—or the quality of services that residents receive in each state, based on how much residents pay in taxes. The services studied included education, health, safety, economy, and infrastructure and pollution.
West Virginia may not have scored great overall, with residents seeing only the 38th-best return on investment for their taxes, but the Mountain State fared better than some of the nation’s major population centers.
WalletHub found that California residents saw the worst return on investment (ROI) for their taxes in the nation, paying the most in taxes per capita, but only ranking 35th for quality of services.
The second worst ROI was Hawaii, followed by New Mexico, Arkansas, Delaware, Connecticut, Vermont, Oregon, Louisiana, New York, Mississippi and North Dakota at the 12th-worst.
West Virginia’s ranking was mostly due to its low tax burden. The Mountain State ranked 17th lowest total taxes paid per capita, but also ranked 46th in the overall quality of government services.
The government services that hurt West Virginia’s ranking were its school systems (46th), roads and bridges (49th), water quality (tied for 48th), and percentage of residents in poverty (47th).
Although WalletHub has been criticized for its perceived liberal leaning by Gov. Jim Justice, the outlet did acknowledge that taxpayers in red states get a better ROI, averaging blue states’ rank at 29.48 and red states’ at 21.52.
WalletHub found the highest-performing states for ROI overall were, New Hampshire (1st), Florida (2nd), Alaska (3rd), South Dakota (4th), Texas (5th), Missouri (6th), Virginia (7th), Georgia (8th), Ohio (9th) and Wyoming (10th).
WalletHub said it used data from multiple sources to conduct the study, including the U.S. Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, National Center for Education Statistics, National Institute for Early Education Research, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, County Health Rankings, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Federal Highway Administration, Federal Bureau of Investigation and Health Resources and Services Administration, as well as several non-government organizations and its own research.
Click here to read the full study.
