JDgreen227, unfortunately, your attitude is EXACTLY what the local government people are bargaining on. I have seen this same scenario carried out in several different countries, all the same way. You are seeing the impoverishment of the American people happen right before your eyes and the benefit of a few. The community where I live, the median household income is $45k/yr, yet the smaller/older homes have a property tax of $2300/yr and the newer homes and those close to the lake are running $4000-5000/yr.
I will admit that I do not have close ties to the area, other than having lived here for the last 10 years. But regardless, it still costs me to move. The thing that has to be considered is that the low tax parts of the country did not get that way by accident. There are certain values that dominate in that area, and it is attracting more like minded people from across the country. If you live in Custer County Colorado, it is not because you are looking for free stuff. It is because you want independence and want to decide for yourself how your money is spent. Many volunteers serve on the county government and there are few salaried jobs. The only part that is subsidized is the school system since I'm sure the Feds regard it as flat out illegal to not comply with all of their mandates.
I have taken a subscription to the local newspaper to keep an eye on what has been going on in local news and there have been some pretty major showdowns between the voters and different "quasi county" boards, one being the local medical clinic and the other being the local airport authority, who thought that they could defy the voters because of getting some federal money to spend. In both cases, the people involved got fired, the airport authority got disbanded and integrated into the local council. The "new broom" NP who ran up a massive deficit in the clinic (and hid it) while going after certification to get more federal money was also fired and the entire certification process scrapped. There was an increase in the mill levy to correct a deficit to ambulance services that had been run for several years, as well as collecting on those who had not paid their bills.
The point is that unless people with certain values (specifically financial responsibility) band together, we are all going down the tubes to pay massive public service pensions, which include local government, law enforcement, firefighting, teachers etc etc. Thats in addition to the current spending on education and "programs" to support those who would rather not work.
In South Africa, my father saw their property tax and utilities increase by 1000% over the course of a mere 12 years. At the end of the 12 years, they had constant power outages and the water was not even fit to drink anymore. In Europe, many would find it hard to believe that during the transition to the Euro (which happened during the 3 years I was living there) the cost of many things doubled in Germany and in the less affluent countries like Spain, many common things increased in price by more than 3x. Of course after the short boom there has been a huge crash, but just imagine how those have faired who retired a couple of years prior to this enormous inflation ?
In Germany (where I lived for 3 years) at the company I was working for, we were all on a 40 hour work week, it was the status quo. In the year I left (2003) they adjusted the "calculated" work week to 35 hours and docked everyones pay by 12.5%. Yet the number of employees and the deadlines remained the same. At the same time, VAT was 6% and over the next 4 years it increased from 6% to 21%. Just imagine, after having about 60% in deductions from your pay before it even gets in your bank account, they take another 21% off anything that you spend ?
Its the old story of the frog swimming in the pot that is heated slowly....
