I READ WITH INTEREST the cover story in Commonwealth magazine’s Spring issue titled “Fear and loathing on the tax trail.” This piece offers an interesting retrospective view on our state’s fitful relationship with tax burdens and perceptions. However, the centerpiece of its analysis, a chart that put Massachusetts in the average middle of the 50 states in terms of state and local taxes as a share of personal income, misses a central competitive reality: Massachusetts rarely, if ever, competes against most US states for innovation economy jobs. In fact, a forthcoming survey of Massachusetts competitiveness undertaken by the Mass High Tech Council includes just 16 states in our competitive set. These include innovation-friendly states such as North Carolina, Virginia, and Colorado – all of which have lower tax burdens than Massachusetts.

Restricting Commonwealth magazine’s analysis to just those states in our competitive set reveals that Massachusetts’ share of state and local taxes relative to personal income is higher than a majority in our peer set, and is another data point that contributes to our relatively low cost-competitiveness in national rankings.

No one disputes that Massachusetts is a strong competitor on talent. A 2010 study by the Milken Institute ranked Massachusetts number one in science and technology. But we cede that advantage when we consider a variety of costs—including taxes.

A 2012 Tax Foundation/KPMG study placed Massachusetts 44th out of 50 in overall cost-competitiveness. Commonwealth’s analysis, while well intended, paints with too broad a brush. We’re not facing competition from higher tax states such as Alaska, Wyoming, or North Dakota; we’re facing it from a range of peer technology states with deep reservoirs of talent whose government policymakers are highly motivated to compete with us for high tech jobs. To sustain and grow the high technology sector that is so critical to the Massachusetts economy we must not allow our chief competitors to outflank us on taxes.

Chris Anderson is president of the Massachusetts High Tech Council.