I may be a rudimentary fact or something really "not-that-hard-to-figure-out", but
In inorganic chemistry it is common to consider a single value of the electronegativity to be valid for most "normal" situations. While this approach has the advantage of simplicity, it is clear that the electronegativity of an element is not an invariable atomic property and, in particular, increases with the oxidation state of the element. Wikipedia
Really? That means for example $\ce{C}$ in $\ce{CO3^{2-}}$ is more electronegative than a "bare" C atom? Why is that so?
Interestingly, I'm not able to find relevant info in the Net (and the wikipedia citation that should have hopefully got me results is behind a big bad paywall), so am leaving "reference-request" for the case of additional study.