12 States Where Taxpayers Get the Least Bang for Their Buck

Taxpayers' return on investment — what they get in return for their investment in federal, state and local governments — varies based on where they live, according to a recent report from WalletHub. And some states' taxpayers don't seem to be getting what they're paying for.

Related: 12 States With the Highest Taxes in America

Federal income-tax rates are uniform across the nation, but some states receive a lot more funding than others and even vastly different amounts of COVID-19 aid. In addition, states have vastly different tax burdens. WalletHub conducted research to determine where taxpayers get the best and worst return on investment by contrasting state and local tax collections with the quality of the services residents receive in the 50 states within the categories of education, health, safety, economy, and infrastructure and pollution. The data set included 30 key metrics, each of which was graded on a 100-point scale. Analysts then determined each state's weighted average across all 30 metrics to calculate an overall government services score. Finally, they came up with a taxpayer ROI ranking by comparing each state's government services score to its total taxpaid per capita. See the panel above the 12 states with the worst taxpayer return on investment.