californians, despite high state income taxes, have lower other taxes. On net they pay less in tax than texans, who have no state income tax. check out ITEP.org's Who Pays report every year. they run a report that totals the entire tax regime (income, sales, property, fuel, the whole shebang) in a state, including federal taxes, runs a sample family's books at various income levels, sees what their taxes (all of them) would be, then makes a big report for the entire country.

In Texas, if you are poor you pay more of your income toward taxes than the rich. That's because the graduated income tax rate most states have corrects for the regressive tax structures in just about every other tax. Texas has no income tax. You see the same thing in Washington State. In California, the rich and the poor pay about the same percentage of their income toward tax, and it is lower than Texas at every income level. Funny that.