Yes and no, Of course CA, NY, NJ,WA, IL are infested with government scum and socialism and high taxes. Its very clear that the region has nothing to do with it. In populous states that also happen to be Red like Texas, Florida, Virginia and so on taxes are typically lower than blue states of comparable population. However, Taxes are much higher than Alaska or Arizona or N Dakota, Idaho. I’m not sure on the reason but it seems to be a direst correlation between politics,populations and taxes. Obviously states with more people have more roads, more schools, more jails. More parks more buses, more social programs. They also have a lot more people to tax so in theory you’d think the extra people would cover it but Who the fuck knows.