Although I’ve not conducted work for every state, I’ve not ran across one yet that does not have property taxes. Because your inquiry intrigued me, I did some looking and found the artcile at the address below:

http://articles.moneycentral.m.....eRank.aspx

Honestly, I was suprised that Alaska has property tax (and not one of the lower at that), since there are so many stipends to get people to live there.

There are days when I’m tempted to think “it’s all the same; the gov’t gets your dollars one way or another — it just takes different forms.” Deep down, however, the biggest difference is substance over form. In other words, it comes down to how the state stewards the taxes and also where you want to live (even if your state is not the best). In my situation, I would LOVE to live in Colorado forever and pray God provides for me to stay here (although taxes are somewhat high and the state has a small deficit). My best job prospect right now is to move to a state where the taxes (in total) are relatively less. That state is one where there are sales, property, and income taxes, but the biggest source is sales (due to high tourism).

Go figure!

Marci & Diana – I would much prefer property and sales tax, too. But I’m glad we don’t have all three!

Other states: Since leaving Oregon, I’ve lived in WA, VT, and CO. WA has sales and property tax; the latter two have sales, property, and income tax. I’m more in favor of the WA system (doesn’t punish frugality).

Cautions: No matter where you live, always do your homework, especially on major purchases. For example, the last vehicle I purchased was in WA state. The dealer almost made a major error wherein I would have had to pay Sales and Use Tax (completely in addition to regular sales tax) on my trade-in. I knew that was incorrect (I’m a licensed CPA in OR and WA), so I did my homework and presented information they were incorrect. It saved a lot of money. When I moved from WA to VT and registered that vehicle I bought in WA, I did the homework up-front. Since I proved I paid the sales tax in WA for the purchase, I saved several thousand on paying additional sales tax in VT. CO is a silly state on taxes (and they are deficit) and I didn’t have any similar issues to register my vehicle (although their registration fees are hefty).

All of this to say, wherever you live, do your homework on taxes. Also, the CA situation is truly sad, but it points to poor planning. Over the course of the last few decades, that state has implemented many “nice” programs that really are comparable to welfare. This especially includes their public medical benefits (hmmm – I wonder if the federal gov’t could learn from this?). The state didn’t plan on how to pay in the course of economic downturns and look what happened. The world’s 8th largest economy issues IOU’s! It gets even sillier. I remember last year I read articles where developers were offering BOGOs (buy one get one free) on house building! Sure they had it great in the late nineties, but what about planning for cyclical downturns? GREEDY, GREEDY, GREEDY!

I hope this post offends no one, but in these hard times, it has become even more important that spending w/o a plan is ridiculous.