FWIW, in Canada we don’t charge federal or provincial sales tax on groceries.
Why? What’s happening in six months in Michigan? Is this something related to the non-bailout of the auto-industry? 
Anyways, I would have thought the answer would have been Mississippi or Alabama – don’t those two usually bottom out the list of bad schools, poverty rates and stuff like that?
Though in terms of messed up as in “batshit crazy” (to quote the XJETGIRLX link), yeah, maybe Florida.
The bailout doesn’t have much to do with it. Whether the bailout were to happen or not, the US auto industry is pretty much forked. With that you might as well say Michigan industry (and NW Ohio industry) is forked, too. The Michigan economic situation is already abysmal and half of the state’s exports are automotive [cite]. I’m not sure how much of this is American and how much is foreign, but I’d WAG that any further collapse in the automotive industry in Michigan will pretty much make an already shaky economy collapse as it struggles to fill the vacuum.
That being said, most of what I know about the Michigan economic situation has been from friends and family living there, so I could be wrong.
Also, FWIW, when I lived in Ohio they didn’t tax any food at all. The rules were kinda complicated and I’m not going to bother to look them up again, but it basically boiled down to the idea that if it has nutritional value, it cannot be taxed. So even a bag of Doritos went untaxed, but, for example, while a bottle of orange or tomato juice would be untaxed, a soda or a bottle of water would be considered taxable. Fast food is taxed if you dine in (as is the food served at any restaurant), but if ordering the food to-go, it is untaxed (except for the drink [unless it’s fruit juice]). This means a quick lunch from McDonald’s would usually have a sales tax of 6 cents or so, as the soda would be taxed, but the food would not.
From what I remember, sales tax at Baton Rouge was 9%, even on groceries, since the times I went and bought food in the supermarket, I remember seeing the 9% tax added on. I bought food at Albertson’s, Winn-Dixie, and Wal-Mart (we have both supercenter and marketplace).
I think LA and Miss are always at the bottom of every list related to “quality of life”. Although Louisiana has awesome southern cuisine compared to the rest of the southern states. 
I’m sorry, but barring the sausage gravy and pecan pie, southern comfort food is rather bland. Unless it is done in Louisiana. Yummy! And they have boiled crawfish! Double yummy!
Any particular reason?
Poorly funded schools, yes. Corruption, no. And our streets & bridges are kept up fairly well.
MS does have sales taxes on food. That’s one thing I would like to see changed.
I gotta go with Michigan. Unemployment is around 10% even living in the south-west corner jobs are hard to come by. Plus Detroit. They say around here the thing you never forget about Detroit is the smell.
I think we’d be better if ya’ll cut us off and let us join Canada. Detroit would have some tough new environmental regulations to clean up it’s act, and crime problems. And we could live under a competent government. (the current party crises not withstanding)
One thing MS does well-spreads the wealth from the casinos. Almost all the casinos are along the coast-which is booming (at least up till September). A lot of state tax money comes from them. That money goes to public works all over the state. So a county in the north (which might not even allow alcohol much less gambling) benefits along with the six coastal counties. In Louisiana, such taxes seem to be spent locally. Public schools in the south aren’t very good no question. Efforts are always underway to improve them, but it is a long process. But both MS and LA, while certainly below average (in income if nothing else-which drives many other things), don’t deserve the bad rap they get.
It’s really complicated. If you buy a bottle of juice to drink, it’s tax-free if it’s fresh-squeezed, and taxable if it’s from concentrate. :dubious:
In an article about the Franken/Coleman recount, Time Magazine calls Florida "a diverse, messy, weird and slightly creepy hick state "
So I guess that is a big vote for the good state of Florida.
I have lived in Missouri (pronounced ‘misery’) for a number of years, after having been raised in Minnesota. When I left MN it was one of the bluest states around…now it’s gone all ikky red.
Rather than having “show-me state” on it’s license plates, Missouri really ought to have “where everybody smokes” instead.
It’s truly sickening the amount of second-hand smoke I, as an ex-smoker, have to endure.
Detroit as a whole smells no worse than any other big city. Are there factories? Sure. But they’re only in certain areas. The whole place doesn’t stink. And it’s not like it’s comparable to Gary, IN.
I work in Detroit, driving in from a 'burb, and there’s no over-all stink present.
Worst state? Illinois, nah. It’s not even the most corrupt; they’re just experiencing a real sexy scandal right now. I gotta agree with the folks who say California’s the most messed up. The governor actually tried to turn all state employees into volunteers for a while this year.
This is true. Detroit doesn’t really smell like anything. I spend most of my day there all week and even the most blighted areas don’t have an odor problem. It’s a popular thing to say for outstate fucks that have never been there however. It’s a big thing in the rest of the state to exaggerate and/or make up things about detroit to make themselves feel better.
Michigan is just biding its time. we’ll see whose laughing when you all start running out of water.
I agree. I’ve been to Detroit many, many times and have never noticed a smell. It’s certainly not in the running for World’s Greatest 'Burg, but it’s not that bad, either. Some very, very select parts (mostly suburbia) are actually pretty darn nice.
Related article from the NYT.
I liked Kansas! (I guess it might have been before Fred Phelps!) I was in the USAF stationed at Forbes Air Force Base near Topeka, (from 1971-1973), and I found Kansas and Kansans very nice.
I’ve been a kite person most of my life, and it was a great place to fly kites!
My mother grew up in Kentucky, and she said their state was always 2nd to last in all categories. Last was always Mississippi. They said, “Thank God for Mississippi” since they didn’t want to be last.
Sigh. Revenues in California have been going UP. It is the socialists up in Sacramento that just refuse to stop spending. All the legislative staffers up in sacmo just got substantial raises, for example. Or the sweetheart deal made by Davis with the prison guards. Those guys are making as much as $200k a year thanks to that bastard. Most of the people who work in Sacramento could be fired and no-one would know the difference, but they just keep multiplying and sucking more dollars. The Govenator tried to warn them, but he has given up and gone over to the dark side. We are one of if not THE most highly taxed state in the union, yet we won’t subcontract a single highway job. We tried to change this by ballot, but the smear campaign from Caltrans types was so pervasive and packed with scare tactics and lies that it didn’t make the cut.
California needs to fire fully half of the people that work for the state, and give the rest a large pay cut.
Either that, or the last taxpayer to leave the state should remember to shut off the light switch.
Joe Arapio is my hero. If we had more law enforcement officers like him, the thugs of the world would think twice, then three times before ruining other people’s lives. Of course, I think that residential burglars should get the chair. DON’T break in my home. I don’t care what the law says, you gonna be a dead sucker.
/Yah, I’ve had enough of the scumbags. Let them all rot. Arizona sun and pink jumpsuits FTW
That’s funny. Everybody in Louisiana and Alabama always say they are next to last, next to MS.
Make up your mind, people!
Anyway, I think the reason people say that is because MS is a poor state. Being poor means we get low scores in health care, in education, etc. Being poor doesn’t necessarily equate with being “messed up” per the OP.
Per the OP:
Our personal indebtedness is apparently the lowest in the nation, according to this article on MSN. Roughly half that of northern states’ average personal debt.
The state’s General Obligation Bond rating is still Aa3. Not the best but also not the worst. Here’s a CNN article on Moody ratings.
According to this report on state highways & bridges, MS ranked 38th. In the lower half certainly, but not the worst. (North Dakota scored the best). The table is on page 5.
I personally don’t see evidence of MS being ‘unorganized and badly run’. I think we do fairly well with what we have to work with.
Well, it is pretty easy to maintain roads in a state with more Bison than automobiles.