{"id":1858,"date":"2017-04-28T13:17:51","date_gmt":"2017-04-28T13:17:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/dataviz\/?p=1858"},"modified":"2017-04-28T13:17:51","modified_gmt":"2017-04-28T13:17:51","slug":"state-tax-ratings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/dataviz\/2017\/04\/28\/state-tax-ratings\/","title":{"rendered":"State Tax Ratings"},"content":{"rendered":"

Justin Mungal<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Tax is a powerful tool for implementing effective public policy.\u00a0 Few legislative mandates share its efficacy in shaping, seemingly overnight, corporate behavior.\u00a0 Inextricably, it is tied to the notion of the common good<\/em> insofar as it pools society\u2019s financial resources for funding that vision of social welfare and human well-being.\u00a0 Aside from technological innovation, it stands as one of the greatest formators of our modern economy.\u00a0 For that reason, there is large vested interest in shaping tax code and many a think-tank has arisen around the D.C. metropolitan in order to have a voice at that table of national discussion.<\/p>\n

The Tax Foundation recently released its 2017 State Business Tax Climate Index.\u00a0 Their visualization shows a map of the fifty United States of America color coded as blue for the ten worst business tax climates, orange for the ten best business tax climates, and grey otherwise.\u00a0 Also, the individual rankings (1-50) are printed in white on each individual state.\u00a0 The visualization\u2019s goal appears to be to create a KPI based on the results of their study in which they rank states according to 100 variables grouped into the five categories of: corporate taxes, individual income taxes, sales taxes, unemployment insurance taxes, and property taxes.\u00a0 The stated goal of the KPI is to enable tax policy makers to compare their state\u2019s tax system to other American states.\u00a0 The rationale for comparing state tax systems is that most business decisions to move based on tax incentives are intrastate decisions rather than international ones.\u00a0 Thus, the ability to retain business stakeholders is based on the relative favorability of one\u2019s state tax structure to another state\u2019s.\u00a0 Furthermore, by ranking every single state according to 100 variables, states can build themselves a roadmap to improvement based on the differences of tax structure in higher ranking states.<\/p>\n

While the visualization is the poster child of the Tax Foundation\u2019s report, I find it exceptionally uninformative.\u00a0 Directly below the visualization they have printed the numerical rankings of each state.\u00a0 This tabular representation of the same data is much more straight forward and easier to digest.\u00a0 For example if I were a tax policy maker from North Dakota, ranked #29, I would have difficulty finding the next best state (i.e. #28) from whom I could learn how to improve my state tax structure.\u00a0 Indeed, one must scour the map until finally locating #28 on the state of Mississippi.\u00a0 Contrast this to the tabular data with its column of overall ranking, where the next best state is easily spotted (loading the table into Excel and filtering the data according to overall rank would make it even easier).\u00a0 Indeed, I find no benefit to studying the visualization over the table, as the mapping of the data essentially scatters the physical location of data whereas the table organizes it.\u00a0 The only benefit of the mapping is that it adds eye-catching color to the eighty-page report.<\/p>\n

What I find most disappointing about the Tax Foundation\u2019s visualization is that the report itself is very well done and informative.\u00a0 However, skimming the internet for similar visualizations, I find the Pew Foundation’s:and Wallet Hub’s: maps of state tax data.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Pew Trust Foundation\u2019s map has more interesting bins by which states are colored and Wallet Hub\u2019s visualization delivers a heatmap; both maps working interactively to show the individual state ranking when the cursor is place over the state.\u00a0 While the Pew and Wall Hub reports cover different domains of data, they point out that a unique perspective on visualizing state tax data rankings is possible.\u00a0 Comparatively, the Tax Foundation\u2019s visualization falls short as it does not offer any new perspective on the table of data immediately below but rather obfuscates those same results for the purpose of soliciting \u201ceye candy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Given that the Tax Foundation\u2019s report is high quality, I believe there is room for optimistic hope that their visualization can be improved.\u00a0 Moreover, I personally think that the table of results below the visualization is well organized and sufficiently summarizes their findings.\u00a0 That said, I would add on top of that data another data set that would make the visualization illuminating.\u00a0 For example, the map could be color coded to indicate the hottest states to which businesses relocated to due to tax incentives, with the original report rankings either being numerically printed as they have now or interactively projected as in the Pew map.\u00a0 This layering<\/em> of data in the visualization would build upon the table and create a convincing argument as to why a state may want to change their tax code and which state\u2019s tax code they should be modeling theirs after.\u00a0 Such a visualization would give state tax policy makers a clearer<\/em> roadmap to economic success.<\/p>\n

Resources:<\/p>\n

<https:\/\/taxfoundation.org\/2017-state-business-tax-climate-index-released-today\/><\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.pewtrusts.org\/en\/multimedia\/data-visualizations\/2014\/fiscal-50#ind0 and<\/p>\n

https:\/\/wallethub.com\/edu\/best-worst-states-to-be-a-taxpayer\/2416\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Justin Mungal Tax is a powerful tool for implementing effective public policy.\u00a0 Few legislative mandates share its efficacy in shaping, seemingly overnight, corporate behavior.\u00a0 Inextricably, it is tied to the notion of the common good insofar as it pools society\u2019s financial resources for funding that vision of social welfare and human well-being.\u00a0 Aside from technological … Continue reading State Tax Ratings<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1998,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"qubely_global_settings":"","qubely_interactions":"","kk_blocks_editor_width":"","_kiokenblocks_attr":"","_kiokenblocks_dimensions":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"gutentor_comment":0,"qubely_featured_image_url":null,"qubely_author":{"display_name":"justinmungal","author_link":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/dataviz\/author\/justinmungal\/"},"qubely_comment":0,"qubely_category":"Uncategorized<\/a>","qubely_excerpt":"Justin Mungal Tax is a powerful tool for implementing effective public policy.\u00a0 Few legislative mandates share its efficacy in shaping, seemingly overnight, corporate behavior.\u00a0 Inextricably, it is tied to the notion of the common good insofar as it pools society\u2019s financial resources for funding that vision of social welfare and human well-being.\u00a0 Aside from technological…","post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/dataviz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/dataviz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/dataviz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/dataviz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1998"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/dataviz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1858"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/dataviz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1858\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1859,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/dataviz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1858\/revisions\/1859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/dataviz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/dataviz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/dataviz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}