The weather may be nicer and the grapes juicier, but when it comes to paying sales tax, be glad you don't live in California.

The Golden State boosted its sales tax rate last year from 6.25 percent to 7.25 percent, giving it the highest rate in the nation, according to Berwyn, Pa.-based Vertex Inc., a software company that helps businesses with their tax reporting.

California was one of seven states, plus Washington, D.C., to increase their sales tax rate in 2009. That was the highest number of states passing sales tax increases since Vertex began tracking the data in 1982.

The average sales tax rate in the country stood at a record high of 5.468 percent last year, Vertex said.

Overall, there were 850 changes in sales tax rates among the nation's states, cities, counties and specialized taxing districts last year, Vertex said in its annual sales tax report. That was down from 1,048 in 2008, but the highest level since 954 changes in 2003.

The changes come as states and towns grapple with budget deficits "of a magnitude that has not been experienced since the early 1940s," the Vertex report said.

So far this year, four states have proposed sales tax increases: Arizona, Maine, New Mexico and Washington.

In Pennsylvania, the governor is proposing to cut the tax rate from 6 percent to 4 percent, effective in September. At the same time, however, his plan is to broaden the tax to cover 74 additional categories of goods and services currently exempt, such as advertising, accounting and legal services, funeral homes, newspapers, nonprescription drugs, candy and gum, textbooks, school buses, veterinary fees and water and sewage services.

The governor's plan, which would raise an estimated $531 million the first year, would preserve most of the exemptions for food and clothing.

The U.S. sales tax leader, California, also exempts most groceries. But unlike the Keystone State, it taxes clothing.

The average combined sales tax rate (including, state, county and city sales taxes) rose to 8.629 percent last year, up from 8.574 percent. The highest combined rate belonged to Arab, Cullman County, Ala., at 12 percent.

That compares with a combined state-county sales tax in Allegheny County of 7 percent.

The average county sales tax rate held steady at 1.629 percent, while the average city rate edged lower to 1.532 percent, according to Vertex.

Besides Washington, D.C., which raised the sales tax from 5.75 percent to 6 percent, and California, the other states that boosted the tax in 2009 included Massachusetts (from 5 percent to 6.25 percent); Minnesota (from 6.5 percent to 6.875 percent); North Carolina (from 4.5 percent to 5.75 percent); Utah (from 4.65 percent to 4.7 percent); Nevada (from 4.25 percent to 4.6 percent); and Delaware (from 1.536 percent to 1.92 percent, but only for the rental tax).

After California, the states with the highest sales tax rate were Indiana, Mississippi, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Tennessee, all at 7 percent.

On the other end of the scale, there are five states that don't have a general sales tax: Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire and Oregon.

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