In Midwest, $100 Goes Further Everywhere But Illinois
By John Dodge
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Of all Midwest states, there is only one in which spending $100 doesn't go as far as it should: Illinois.
According to the Tax Foundation, when a resident of Illinois spends $100, they get $99.40 in actual value. That actually means that the worth of $100 here is just slightly less than the national average, but other states in the region provide better value.
For example, Iowa is a low-price state, where $100 will buy what would cost $111.73 in another state that is closer to the national average, like Illinois.
You can think of this as meaning that Iowans are about 11 percent richer than their incomes would suggest, the Tax Foundation said.
The states where $100 is worth the least are the District of Columbia ($84.60), Hawaii ($85.32), New York ($86.66), New Jersey ($87.64), and California ($88.57).
That same money goes the furthest in Mississippi ($115.74), Arkansas ($114.16), Missouri ($113.51), Alabama (113.51), and South Dakota ($113.38).
Aside from Iowa and Missouri, here is the added value of $100 of other neighbor states: Indiana ($109.77), Wisconsin ($107.64), and Kentucky ($112.61).
In Michigan, which is a tremendously popular destination for people from the Chicago area, people get $105.93 in value for $100 spent.
The Tax Foundation, the non-partisan, conservative leading think tank, used data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis to adjust the U.S. average value of $100 to reflect how prices are different in each state. (Click on the image to enlarge).
