The objective of this paper is to view the twentieth century changes in the structure of state taxation in a historical perspective to understand the tax burden acceptable at the state level and the incidence of that tax incidence from proportional to progressive taxes and vice versa. The tax burden and incidence in four different states from four different regions of the country, California, Indiana, Kentucky, and New York, will then be compared for the decade of the 1970\u27s to determine if a pattern of change in the tax burden and tax incidence existed at the time of the revolts