State Sales Tax and State Spending

Maryland
1 Look at the state general sales tax proportion. How important is the general sales tax to your state… more or less important as compared to the average of all states? More or less important as compared to the 6 states we’ve looked at? 
General sales tax makes up 9.8% of Maryland’s income, which ranks it 3rd among the six states looked at but nearly 2 percentage points below the U.S. national average. At roughly 10 percent of the state’s revenue, the general sales tax is an important revenue source for the state.
Among the six states examined, New Jersey takes in the most from general sales tax, with 13.5% of its revenues coming from this stream.
Pennsylvania is second with 10.6%. And Maryland just behind it.
West Virginia is fourth with 7.9% and Virginia is fifth with 6.6%
Delaware has no sales tax so it brings in now revenue from this source.
So while the general sales tax is important to Maryland compared to the other six states, it is still 1.7% lower than the national average.
Thus, in effect, it is important but not as important as it is to the majority of the other U.S. states.
2 Look at the local property tax proportion. How important is the property tax to the cities and counties in your state… more or less important as compared to the average of all states? More or less important as compared to the 6 states we’ve looked at? 
Local property tax is very important to the cities and counties in Maryland, making up 27.4% of the local income proportion. However, it is less important than compared to the six other states examined here (ranking 4th among the states). Maryland’s local property tax t is 1.6% greater than the U.S. national average—which means that Maryland’s local property tax is above average in terms of importance to the state’s cities and counties.
First, again, is New Jersey, with 55.9% of its local revenue coming from local property tax.
Second is Virginia, with 30.5%.
Third is West Virginia with 28.3%. Maryland follows fourth.
Fifth is Pennsylvania with 27.2% and sixth is Delaware with 22.5%.
With the national average being 25.9%, Maryland is above mean by more than a percentage and a half.
3 Look at the spending on education at both the state and local levels for your state. Including both state and local levels of spending, consider the differences between your state and the national averages, and answer the following question: is your state, taking into account both state and local levels of spending, nearer the top or nearer the bottom in emphasizing education? 
At the state level, Maryland is 0.8% below the national average, which is 13.7% of expenditures that go to education. Among the six states examined here, Maryland is ranked fifth with 12.8% of expenditures going to education at the state level, sitting well behind Delaware which is first at 18.9%, Virginia and West Virginia both at 16.9%, and New Jersey at 13.8%. Of the six, only Pennsylvania spends less on education than Maryland. However, Maryland is not very far off the national average so it cannot be said that education is any less important than it is to most other states: it is neither at the top nor at the bottom, but mainly in the middle.
At the local level, Maryland spends much more than the national average on education, with 44.7% of local expenditure going to education. Still, among the six states, it ranks fourth, ahead of only Pennsylvania and Virginia—so when compared to the national average of local expenditure on education, Maryland is at the top of the range but when compared to the six states examined here it is at the bottom range. Taking into both state and local levels, Maryland is about at the national average when it comes to emphasizing education.
4 Look at the spending on public welfare at both the state and local levels for your state. Including both state and local levels of spending, consider the differences between your state and the national averages and answer the following question: is your state, taking into account both state and local levels of spending, nearer the top or nearer the bottom in emphasizing public welfare?
Maryland spends 2.3% more than the national average on public welfare at the state level, but 2.4% less than the national average on public welfare at the local level. These two virtually cancel one another out, putting Maryland in the middle of the pack nationally speaking when it comes to emphasizing public welfare.
Among the six states analyzed here, Maryland ranks third in public welfare expenditure at the state level and fourth in public welfare expenditure at the local level—which is consistent with its average ranking within the mean, nationally speaking. Number one at the state level is West Virginia and at the local level it is Pennsylvania.