An interesting editorial coming out of Roanoke VA  pointed out that property taxes are an antiquity that belong in a museum. The article pointed out that property taxes made sense when only the wealthy owned taxable houses, but now with widespread homeownership, it should be abolished.

As historian John Steele Gordan said in a 2006 commentary on Marketplace, the property tax is "a relic of the colonial past and should be abolished." He said it should be displayed in the Smithsonian "along with other relics like chamber pots and clay pipes." http://www.roanoke.com/editorials/wb/157290

Property taxes, the article argues, bears o relation to the taxpayer’s ability to pay. The working poor are often imprisoned by arbitrary high property assessments. Minimum wage homeowners have little resources, time or means to fight the system. Budget increases and tax hikes unfortunately increase the burden on the already poor.

The alternative would be a state tax. It would be simple and fair. The local tax departments could be fired. Expensive blanket assessments would be abolished saving millions of wasted dollars.