Here is the list of worst states to retire in
http://money.msn.com/retirement/10-worst-states-to-retire-inpretty much all red (I think New Mexico is blue)
It turns paying for services is expensive but tends to make it a better a place to live. Not too surprising.
Of course if you disagree with their criteria you can use
http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2013/05/06/the-10-best-states-for-retirementwhich thinks a lot of those states are good to go. If you really think about it this lists are far to vague to be useful. As I said earlier living in LA is a lot different than living in Truckee, living in Nashville,Tn is different than living in Centerville, TN and so on.
I would still love to see the tax difference for someone living in on lets say 30k in every state of the union (obviously they would have to make a lot o guess on sales tax and property tax). I am guessing the tax burden is pretty even. Bump that up to 100k and then I would expect to see drastic differences.
Mostly blue states, interesting how that works out!