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Meridian fared relatively well through the recession, thanks in part to the many different types of businesses in the city. The CORE (a health, technology, and research cluster), Blue Cross of Idaho, and PKG UserInterface Solutions are a few of the major local employers. Those who venture to Boise for work find the commute relatively painless. Nothing's perfect, though: Like all Idaho residents, Meridian families pay a decent amount in sales and income taxes. --E.R.
Notes:
*County data
Due to erroneous job, cost-of-living, and test score stats for a small number of places, this city's rank changed slightly from an earlier version.
Details.
Due to an error by our data provider, an earlier version listed incorrect stats for this city's number of colleges.
(I) Income tax notes:
17 states have statutory provision for automatically adjusting to the rate of inflation the dollar values of the income tax brackets, standard deductions, and/or personal exemptions. Massachusetts, Michigan, and Nebraska index the personal exemption only. Oregon does not index the income brackets for $125,000 and over. Because the inflation adjustments for 2012 are not yet available in some cases, the table may report the 2011 amounts. For joint returns, taxes are twice the tax on half the couple’s income. These states use the personal exemption amounts provided in the federal Internal Revenue Code.
Using statistics from data services company Onboard Informatics, we crunched the numbers in order to zero in on America's best small cities for families. (Last year, we looked at small towns, with populations between 8,500 and 50,000.)
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