When it comes to state taxes, New Jersey residents are among the most likely to complain that they are too high. That's according to a new Gallup poll which found that 77 percent of those surveyed believe they are paying too much in taxes in the Garden State.

(Cheryl Casey, ThinkStock)
(Cheryl Casey, ThinkStock)
loading...

New York tied for the highest in the country, with 77 percent saying they pay too much in taxes. In Pennsylvania, 58 percent of respondents said they pay too much, according to the poll.

"We're measuring human perception of residents of these states, and one would imagine that it has a lot to do with the taxes themselves, and that's true," said Frank Newport, Gallup editor-in-chief. "We know that a lot of the states at the bottom of the list do not have state taxes, so it's no surprise that residents of those states don't complain too much about taxes being too high. We certainly think taxes are higher in the states in the mid-Atlantic and New England where people complained the most, but there may be other factors involved as well."

Nationally, 50 percent of people said their taxes were too high. While people in the Northeast were the most dissatisfied with their state tax burden, according to the poll, Illinois and Nebraska were also in the top eight -- with 71 percent of residents in Illinois saying they pay too much and 63 percent of Nebraska residents feeling the same way.

Other states that came behind New Jersey and New York were Connecticut (76 percent) and Rhode Island (70 percent). Wyoming was at the bottom of the list, where only 19 percent of those polled described their taxes as too high. Other states with low percentages included Alaska (21 percent), South Dakota (27 percent), Nevada (28 percent) and Florida (33 percent).

"New Jersey is among the states with the highest property taxes in the country and this question asked about state taxes, but some New Jersey residents in responding may have bunched all the taxes together," Newport said.  "Most of the states where people don't complain are out in the mid-west or the far west or the north with the exceptions being Florida and Delaware, where they don't have state taxes."

New Jersey is one of five states where residents have an estimated tax burden above 11 percent. Garden State residents pay an average of 12.3 percent of their income in state and local taxes, which is the second-highest in the nation, according to the Tax Foundation.

For more information on the poll, visit www.gallup.com.

More From WPG Talk Radio 95.5 FM