Think tank: Texas isn’t a low-tax state if you’re poor
“But at the very bottom of the income distribution, Texas’s ‘low tax’ reputation couldn’t be farther from the truth. The poorest 20 percent of Texans devote 13 percent of their incomes to paying state and local taxes — including sales taxes, excise taxes, and property taxes, among other levies. This tax rate is high enough to earn Texas the dubious distinction of being tied with Arizona for the nation’s sixth highest effective tax rate on low-income earners. Texas’s decision to shun income and estate taxes in favor of high sales and property tax rates has effectively shifted the responsibility for funding government downward, onto the families least able to afford high tax rates.”