Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown has been issuing a Harper's-like index of statistics over the past few days. Today's looks at taxes. Here's an excerpt -- and the last line is the key one:

-Number of states where households pay more in state and local property taxes than in Washington: 24

-Number of states where businesses pay more in total business taxes than in Washington: 38

-Total state revenues accounted for by the sales tax: 56 percent

-National average: 24.6 percent

-Number of states whose state and local sales taxes are lower than in Washington: 40

-Percentage that households earning less than $20,000 per year pay in state and local taxes relative to their income: 17.5

-Percentage that households earning up to $143,000 per year pay in state and local taxes relative to their income: 7.4

-Percentage that households earning over $992,000 per year pay in state and local taxes relative to their income: 3.1

-Number of states with a more unfair tax system for lower and middle class taxpayers: 0.

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