I agree: you have to keep a lid on tax revenues as the only reasonable way to keep a lid on spending.
I was one of a handful of vocal agitators in our local city council meetings and we have elected a slate of councilpeople who are likeminded, and passed a zero-property-tax increase this past December. It's a small city, but it can be done.
Of course, the school taxes and county taxes are outside our control pretty much, and seem to have a life of their own: up about 100% in the ten years we have lived there.
We definitely know lots of people who have been 'tax-evicted' -- almost always elderly people moving out while young families move in. The only consolation is that the elderly people do get a good price for their homes when they sell, but we are going down the road of creating a "monoculture" here with only people at the peak of their careers able to comfortably afford the taxes.
I think this issue will balloon into the defining issue of our generation. I for one am preparing my exit plan to some tax-friendly or downsized country in the 10-20 year time horizon. That of course will be just about the time everybody else wants to sell, so it will be pretty uncomfortable all around, I'm guessing. But in the meantime we'll log some good years here.
Still if you own your own house free and clear, you'd think it would feel somehow like "yours". It isn't. You have the right to live there only as long as you pay the various monopolistic entities running the town that the property exists in. It might as well be theirs, and they just charge you rent. What you do on the property is your business, (construct a big house, a little house whatever) but you have to pay rent to live there.
wasn't an issue before and still isnt in many places because the numbers are still relatively tame. But it is a big issue on the coasts.
A lousy place to even visit, much less think of retiring here.
