Income tax is also a scam but thats another topic. In Florida we dont have income tax. Id be fine paying slightly higher gas tax and sales tax to cover some of the discrepancy from loss in property tax revenue. I dont mind sales tax actually because you can control the amount of sales tax you pay, and it encourages your city to be clean to encourage tourism growth, which increases sales tax revenue. I realized this because if a city like Orlando is dirty, they'll have a bad reputation and therefore lose tourism, the whole state of Florida is like that. In Portland, they had no sales tax, but did have income tax and property tax. Property tax was double what I pay in FL. The city was trashy as hell, they allowed RVs to trash streets all over the place for free. They had no incentive to keep it clean for tourism tax revenue because they didnt have sales tax. They have 70 year old bridges and poor infrastructure. They just robbed their citizens and manage the city like shit. And sure, some if it gets divied out. but it doesnt go directly to them like a business exchange. It goes through government budget beurocracy, which makes a difference. I think there are better ways to collect revenue and fund local necessary services while not pushing people off their owned property with ridiculous tax costs that the government doesnt own or utilize. And further, preventing the government from becoming excessively large.