Flip on cable news, and it’s a pretty safe bet some pundit will be howling about taxes assessed by Uncle Sam. But taxes at the state and local level—which get a lot less attention—are the ones causing the most pain for millions of Americans.

A new study by the nonprofit Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy finds that the lowest 20% of earners pay 10.9% of their income in state and local taxes, on average. For a family earning $30,000 a year, that’s $3,270 in taxes. In the most heavy-handed state — Washington — the same income group pays 16.8% of its income in state and local taxes. At the federal level, the tax burden on people in that same income bracket is effectively zero, by contrast, although low earners do have taxes deducted from their paychecks to help fund Social Security and Medicare.

Middle-income households pay 9.4% of their earnings in state and local levies, on average, according to the study. That’s less than their effective federal tax rate of 17.6% — but that doesn’t mean middle-income taxpayers are getting a good deal. The top 4% of earners pay only 7% of their income in state and local taxes on average, while the top 1% pay just 5.4%.

The wealthy still have a higher tax bill; 5.4% of a $500,000 income is more than 10.9% of $30,000. But such declining rates for higher earners is considered a “regressive” tax system in which the tax burden hits lower earners harder than higher ones. For all the invective hurled at the federal tax system, it may be the state and local tax structure in some areas that most needs reformed.

Collecting revenue

States and cities raise revenue in three principal ways: sales, income and property taxes. Some municipalities levy all three types of tax, while others rely more heavily on one or two. Property taxes are typically assessed locally to help pay for schools, for instance. Seven states have no income tax, which means they depend more heavily on other types of taxes for revenue.

The same is true for the five states with no sales tax, which are considered the most regressive because everybody must pay them and low-income people are likely to spend a higher portion of their incomes—sometimes all of it—on taxed merchandise, while the wealthy are more likely to save (and take advantage of sophisticated tax shelters).

Here’s ITEP’s list of the “Terrible 10” states with the most regressive tax systems:

Of seven states with no income tax, four of them make the Terrible 10 list. (The others are Alaska, Nevada and Wyoming.) It’s worth noting that politicians in places like Texas and Florida often boast about the low taxes in their states. But that’s only true for certain taxpayers--most notably, wealthy ones who benefit the most from the lack of an income tax.