Orange County Register, May 12, 2010

If you prefer as little tax burden as possible, you will cringe to learn that California ranks in a tie for last place with South Carolina and New York. But if you delight in the idea of government taxing people for every dime it can extract from them, you might perversely view California as being No. 1, atop the heap, tied with South Carolina.

We prefer, as we believe most Californians do, that the state tax less, not more. So, like the folks at Pacific Research Institute, we view this as an unfavorable ranking. In short, there's no state worse than California.

But there are other viewpoints. Incredibly Democrats in the state Legislature this week proposed adding more taxes to close the state's $20 billion budget deficit. The fact that California ranks where it does must be an achievement in the eyes of these tax-and-spend Democrats.