Does state really have high taxes?

New findings question that claim as levies on lower income families are in line with the national average

Maybe California is not such a high tax state after all — at least for lower income families.

“For families of modest means, California is not a high tax state,” says a new study from the Institute on Taxation and Economic

Policy, a liberal Washington research group.

The high tax state moniker has clung to California for some time. Its top income tax rate and gasoline tax are routinely among the nation's highest each year recently, and officials in low-tax Texas and Florida are constantly blasting California for its tax burden.

For families with incomes of $145,900 or less, though, the tax burden is close to or above the national average. And for the wealthiest people, California is clearly a high tax state.

Gov. Gavin Newsom has countered that it's wrong to paint California as a high tax state, noting that middle and lower class residents pay the same or less than Texans and people in Florida. Last year, he said California's tax rates “are lower than the state of Texas'' though adding that California's very wealthy do pay higher rates than in other states.

ITEP, which conducted the new study, researched the impact of state and local taxes on families across the income spectrum in every state. It found that very few states can “neatly be categorized as low tax or high tax for families across the board.”

“The highest earners usually pay higher taxes in California than elsewhere,” wrote Eli Byerly-Duke,

ITEP state policy analyst and Carl Davis, ITEP research director.

For families in the bottom 80% of the income scale — those with annual incomes of $145,900 or less — overall tax rates are within a percentage point of the national average.

But as incomes grow, so does the tax burden.

The next 15% of income earners in California, or families with incomes between $145,900 to