Montana's low tax burden

We are constantly hearing that Montana has a high tax burden and we do have a neighbor that ranks third in the amount of taxes paid per thousand, as reported several days ago. Here's where Montana stands in the report of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation report based on 2002 (the same as the one that ranks Wyoming third): Our income taxes rank us 27th dollar amount per $1000; our "sales and excise" taxes rank us 46th and the total is 28th per dollars per thousand. A lot of states seem to have a higher tax rate than we do. And another report shows that Billings ranks way down among the largest cities of any state in amount of property taxes, in the lower third. Cheyenne is the lowest of the largest cities in all states.