I recently discovered a wealth of data on the Census Bureau’s web site related to tax collection. From the site,
“The State Government Tax Collections (STC) report provides a summary of taxes collected by state for up to 25 tax categories. These tables and data files present the details on tax collections by type of tax imposed and collected by state governments.”
Data is available from 1992 to 2006 - and the taxes are broken down pretty specifically. For instance, you can see how much the state of Alabama has collected in taxes on motor fuels, alcoholic beverages and tobacco products. Or see where a particular state ranks in terms of total taxes collected. [In 2006, Alabama ranked #25. California was #1 and South Dakota was #50.] Some of the data is available for download in an excel spreadsheet.
