by Michael Noyes, MontanaWatchdog.org
Montana dropped eight places Thursday in an annual ranking of the number of days taxpayers must work in each state to pay off their tax obligations.
Montana ranks 18th on the Center for Fiscal Accountability’s annual list for 2010. According to the group’s calculations, state residents must work 225.3 days, or until Aug. 13, to pay for the cost of government.
Nationally the Cost of Government Day is August 19th, eight days later than last year. That means residents, on average, spend 231 days of the year working to pay the cost of government, according to the study.
Alaska and Louisiana were named as the states with the lowest “cost of government.” Taxpayers in both states work 209.4 days to pay for the cost of government, achieving that by July 28.
Connecticut was listed as the lowest ranked state, with taxpayers there spending 260.1 days working to pay for government. Residents of the state will reach that milestone on September 17th.