Is it better to pay the taxes now, or later? If more information is needed to answer the question please ask! I'm happy to supply it.
As TN_Steve has already indicated, I'll ask: what marginal tax rate will you pay in retirement on money you invest today? And, what marginal rate are you paying now?
You have to know the answers to those questions in order to know whether traditional or Roth is better.
Ok, you can't
know the answer to the first part, but you might make some reasonable guesses. Also note that your marginal rate in retirement may depend on your choice of traditional or Roth today: the more you have in Roth, the lower your taxable income (because Roth withdrawals are tax free); the more you have in traditional, the higher your taxable income (because traditional withdrawals are taxed).
So back to reasonable guesses. One defensible rule of thumb is to use traditional if your federal marginal bracket is 25% or above, use Roth if that bracket is 10% or below, and flip a coin (or make a more detailed guess at your retirement situation) at 15%.
This assumes no change in state tax - if you plan to retire in a state that will tax withdrawals much differently than you are being taxed in your current state, you should account for that.