State, local tax: $934 per capita

Americans paid an average of $934 in taxes to state and local governments in fiscal 1979 -- a jump of $46 per person from the previous period, notes a Commerce Clearing House report of the latest US Census Bureau data.

Per-capita state-local tax burdens -- which grew heavier in every state but California -- ranged from a high of $2,546 in Alaska to a low of $594 in Arkansas. Property taxes alone (including taxation of oil and gas properties) accounted for $826 of Alaska's per capita tax burden, according to the Census Bureau figu res.