End the government schools supported by property taxes and you could end property taxes and have a lower sales tax rate increase.
Most of my property tax goes to support schools. When was the last time you ever saw a school board do an across the board cut in their expenses or tell school districts that something like only 5% of their staff could be administrative and the rest had to be full-time classroom teachers? School districts are so bloated with administrative expenses including huge costs for union negotiated health care benefits that it is ridiculous. In Texas not only do we have a homestead exemption but there is a special exemption/lid on many of the taxes we pay if you are over 65 or disabled. So those of us over 65 happen to pay a whole lot less than those under 65 so to increase sales tax could be a huge burden on those living in a fixed income. At the present time, one of the first groups you hear from if you don’t pay your taxes and don’t have an escrow account is the mortgage holder. My suggestion - leave the property tax alone but become involved in your school districts and insist the boards eliminate waste, fraud, unnecessary expenses and programs and bloated administrative costs. Let’s have a voucher program so parents have a more realistic choice about the kind of education their child receives.