When it comes to how much bang Maine taxpayers get for the bucks the pay in federal, state and local taxes, the state ranks in the top half of the country, according to a barometer by personal finance website WalletHub.
To assess which states yield the best and worst return on investment for taxpayers, researchers compared the quality of government services received by residents to the total state and local taxes they pay in each of the 50 states.
States were evaluated across five government service categories, including education, health, safety, the economy. and infrastructure and pollution.
Those were further broken down into 29 subcategories to assign rankings for taxpayer ROI, total taxes paid per capital and for overall government services.
Ranked No. 23 overall for taxpayer ROI, Maine was sandwiched between North Carolina (No. 22) and Indiana (No. 24). Maine was also ranked No. 16 for government services and No. 30 for taxes paid per capita.
A separate WalletHub report found that Maine’s 10.64% overall tax burden is the fifth-highest among the 50 states.