With property taxes, you have local control and local accountability.
My wife and I were the deciding votes (154 to 153) to cut about $1.5 million from the town’s budget a couple of years ago, and thus cut property taxes accordingly.
Try doing that with a statewide income tax or sales tax.
Other states not only have high property taxes, they have high income and sales taxes. I’m paying about the same tax on my 3,200sf colonial on one wooded acre than I was paying on my 1,100sf ranch on a 5,000sf postage stamp in San Jose, California, and by waiting to buy our new car until we moved here, we saved $3,200 in sales tax.
Agreed, but that doesn't seem to be working out too well, as of yet.