For various reasons, property taxes get the most public attention out of all taxes. Andrea Neal, an adjunct scholars with the Indiana Policy Review, has plenty of reason to pay attention. Her mortgage company estimated that the taxes on her property would go up $10 a month. Instead, they went up $375 a month, at least initially.

"We’ve heard dozens of explanations," she writes, "for why property taxes spiked this year: the phase-out of the inventory tax, inaccurate reassessment of commercial properties and a cut in the state homestead credit. But by far the biggest factor is growth in government spending."

From time to time, you'll hear calls for rearranging the tax system, without addressing the fundamental problem.

"The current crisis has prompted calls to abolish the property tax and replace it with higher sales and income taxes. Yet that alone would simply shift the tax burden around. To eliminate the property tax, without altering spending habits, would require Indiana to raise the income tax to 5.4 percent and the sales tax to 10 percent. That’s too much by any standard."

Let me interject here. Some people will say "income tax of 5.4 percent? I wish my rate was that low." Of course, when you ask more of government, you have to pay more, too.

Once an article drops off the front page of the Review's web site, it may be hard to find, so click through while you can. See whether your state is as heavily taxed--or more so--than Indiana.