We're No. 1

New Yorkers given to lamenting our state's high state and local tax burden were in for a shock earlier this month from the latest report from the Tax Foundation, which the foundation reports on its Web site under the headline, "New Jersey Edges Out New York for Nation's Highest State-Local Tax Burden."

Tell it to all the New Yorkers driving across state lines to buy gas in New Jersey, where lower taxes make it about 50 cents a gallon cheaper. Or to all the Wall Street traders and executives who live in New Jersey to avoid New York City income taxes. We were about to throw in with the left-wing Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, which issued a press release headlined "Caution: The Tax Foundation's State and Local Tax Rankings Are Unreliable," until we dug deeper into the Tax Foundation's report.

There we discovered, on the ninth page of the 12-page report, "Table 6." It broke down the $7,206 in per capita state and local tax collections for New Yorkers in Fiscal Year 2008 into two sub-categories — "Taxes Collected from Residents (per capita)" and "Taxes Collected from Non-residents (per capita)." The "taxes collected from residents" category told the story. The $4,845 that the average New York resident pitches in to his city and state dwarfs the $4,376 figure listed for New Jersey. In the other states that border New York, Pennsylvania was at $3,054; Massachusetts was at $3,609; Connecticut was $4,498, and Vermont was $3,072. The national average was $2,924. New York was first in the nation in this category.

So the headline on the Tax Foundation Web site aside, by at least one important measure, New Yorkers are still paying more than anyone else to support state and local governments. In some cases we do so cheerfully because the services provided are superior to those anywhere else — we think of the New York Police Department, the District Attorney of New York County, or of the New York Public Library. In other cases, such as the subways, or the roads, or the public schools, the results range from disastrous to middling, though the schools are at least improving. It is, in any event, exasperating to pay so much and get so little in return.

Of all the things that New Yorkers like to be number one at, from being the financial and news and entertainment and fashion and cultural capital of America, the largest city, the one with the best sports teams, the one most welcoming of immigrants, the most dynamic and exciting, this tax list is one that we'd be happy to be at the bottom of, or at least at the middle of. It will be one way of judging Mayor Bloomberg and Governor Paterson as they navigate the pressures that are affecting the city and state budgets in this economic slowdown.