Ohio ranks fifth in report on taxpayer return on investment

By Hannah News Service 

Ohio was recently ranked fifth-highest among states for taxpayer return on investment (ROI) by personal finance site WalletHub, leading all neighboring states. The report also ranked Ohio eighth in the sub-rank of “total taxes paid per capita” and 25th in “overall government services.” That put it ahead of neighbor states for total taxes and third in government services behind Indiana, Kentucky and Michigan. 

“There can be a tradeoff between how much tax you pay and what you receive in return from the government,” said WalletHub analyst Cassandra Happe. “Several of the states with the best taxpayer ROI don’t charge any income tax, and residents pay less at tax time while receiving good-quality (though not necessarily the best) government services. At the same time, while people pay more in states that do charge income tax, they may benefit from better infrastructure, education, safety or public health as a result.” 

The report contrasted state and local tax collections with the quality of services provided to residents, using 29 “key metrics” with the lower numerical ranking being the best. Those rankings for Ohio included the following: 

- First in unemployment rate. 

- Ninth in share of population who receive fluoridated water through community water systems. 

- 12th in hospital beds per 1,000 residents. 

- 14th in water quality. 

- 15th in average health insurance premium. 

- 16th in median annual household income. 

- 16th in quality of roads and bridges. 

- 18th in average commute times. 

- 19th in underemployment rate. 

- 21st in annual job growth rate. 

- 22nd in violent crime rate per capita. 

- 22nd in fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles traveled. 

- 25th in quality of public hospitals. 

- 26th in property crime rate per capita. 

- 28th in quality of public university system. 

- 29th in projected public high school graduation rate increase between 2022-2023 and 2033-2034. 

- 29th in share of idle youth. 

- 30th in public high school graduation rate. 

- 30th in quality of health care. 

- 33rd in presence of free community college education. 

- 34th in state highway spending per driver. 

- 35th in quality of school system. 

- 36th in share of residents living in poverty. 

- 36th in air pollution. 

- 38th in parks and recreation expenses per capita. 

- 40th in average life expectancy at birth. 

- 41st in state pre-K funding per preschool-enrolled children. 

- 43rd in infant-mortality rate per 1,000 live births. 

There was also a metric on the presence or absence of school programs that did not have comparative rankings for each state.