NY is 4.25% + local taxes. I'm in Texas - 8.25% plus some of the highest property taxes in the country. I pay something like 2.85% in property taxes - as a result, I am essentially renting my house from the government.
But you don't pay sales tax on food. Everytime we go home we buy as many groceries as possible and we save a lot of money. In Tenn.we pay 9.75% on everything.
New York's STATE tax is 4.25%, but the county and local taxes make the state average combined sales tax = 8.4% Texas average combined sales tax is 7.9% so you must be in an area of high local/county taxes.
According to Sales Tax Clearinghouse, Inc., only Tennessee (9.4%) and Louisiana (8.55%) have higher average combined Sales Tax rates. Of course, there are many ways to play with those averages, but the point is, NY has a huge tax burden, despite the 4.25% State Sales Tax rate.