“property taxes are the way to go. Raising them can make homeowners irate, and they are much more likely to take action”
Hence this thread. Homeowners are irate at paying rent to keep what they OWN.
The only other option that conceivably works is income taxes, and I think those are even worse than property taxes. I understand the viewpoint; for my mother in law, her property tax, per month, is as much as her mortgage is. "I don't get it," she said one day. "I've almost gotten this house paid off, how come the monthly bill (which includes a property tax impound) keeps going higher?"
I explain it to her, just like I explain it to everyone. The bill keeps getting higher because city employees think that the city treasury is there for them to loot to their heart's desire. Parties, long vacations, plenty of paid days off, and massive sick leave (which they'll get paid for even if they aren't sick..) Added atop that is a platinum health care plan, a pension that would bankrupt any small business owner and your house is guaranteeing all that largess. If tomorrow a city employee retires, the city is 'freed' less than half of his or her salary to hire a replacement. Because they still have that platinum health care plan, and they never fully paid off the retirement plan.
Atop of all of this, most cities pay their basic employees MORE than the average earnings of the citizens of their town. You really have to search to find an 'average' income town which doesn't pay their employees more than 'average' income of the town.
It is this unmitigated looting that must be controlled, which will eventually lower property taxes. But until the first steps are taken, with salaries increased and ALL benefits eliminated, then even with 'radical' changes to employee contributions, etc, the problem simply returns in a short time.
Most cities are forbidden from carrying non-bonded debt - what the heck are retirement and lifetime health benefits other than non-bonded debt? What are these promises made when people are hired other than shackles upon future elected officials who are supposed to budget for the town? The only way forward is to cast off those shackles - end all city funded retirement plans, end all city funded health plans, end all paid vacations, paid days off, paid sick days. By all means, raise public employee salaries, though I strongly suggest capping it at no more than 1 1/2 times the average income of the citizens of the town. But even if it was limited to 3 times, there's not a city in America who wouldn't benefit from these changes, and immediately have a cash surplus which they can apply to real city problems, rather than bloated personnel costs.