Keller @ Large: Why It's So Expensive To Live In Massachusetts

By Jon Keller, WBZ-TV

BOSTON (CBS) - The Boston Globe ran an interesting article Wednesday about the tax burden in Massachusetts with a provocative headline: "Taxachusetts is a lie."

"Taxachusetts" is the old nickname hung on the state back in the 1980s when our overall tax burden was among the highest in the country. Now, after years of strong political resistance to broad-based tax hikes, we sit back in the middle of the pack among the 50 states.

And just as critics have used the "Taxachusetts" label as a political weapon over the years, long after it became a half-truth, proponents of higher taxes will surely latch onto the Globe headline to help make their case.

But it is a half-truth as well.

Taxes are just a part of the overall cost of living.

Listen to Jon's commentary:

Throw in some of the nation's highest housing, energy and healthcare costs, add the cost of groceries and transportation, and factor in a host of other expenses, and Massachusetts, in the most recent rankings I could find, has the eighth-highest cost of living in the country, 25 percent over the national average.

This is the true measure of how expensive it is to live here, not the overall taxation level. And don't forget to mention stagnant wages.

This is not to say our taxes should or will never go up again. You know they will.

Even our anti-tax governor only says he wants to hold the line… for now.

But any honest discussion of whether or not to add to that burden ought to start with an acknowledgement of what it really costs to live here in our little corner of paradise.