Uhh, which liberal state is rich? Certainly not California, weren't they just asking for a government bailout from the feds? Same with all those other "wealthy" liberal states. I'm sorry, but being in debt over your head don't equal being rich in my book.

The top states that aren't in the red are conservative states, look it up!

As for being highly paid that has many factors to it. One big one is state government employee pay. If the state pays a lot for it's workers it forces the market in those states to up their payscale also to remain competitive. I'd say this is what's happening. Which again, this goes back to those states being broke and in debt over their eyeballs.