In a State like Kalifornia, a decent, three bedroom split with 2,000 sq ft living like mine might cost you as much as $400K +.
My house was just appraised (please, don't confuse 'appraised' with 'assessed') at $200K.
The IDENTICAL House in Kalifornia might cost double that. Easy.
So if they're taxing at a lower millage rate, they're not collecting any less money.
Especially when you consider the density rate in California is fairly high.
And, OBTW. My Taxes last year IIRC, were around $1,800.
Not bad. Not bad at all. Ask a typical New Yawker or New Joisey-ite what he or she pays..... I'm talking TENS of Thousands.
And their Income Tax is out of sight.
I went up to see a buddy of mine from the Army several years ago on Long Island. Successful guy.
He was telling me about his house that he lived that was valued at $450k and his taxes were so high on it that he was thinking of selling ($7,500 more or less) so I drove up there and we talked, reminisced and generally talked shit and told lies.
Anyway...... His house was a piece of shit. An old 100 year old Frame house that you got sea-sick walking on because the floors were so out of level, the basement was moldy and smelled, the plumbing looked like it came from Rikers and the stairs creaked like something out of a 1950's Horror Movie and the windows leaked like a nylon stocking.
He came down to see me a few Months after and he was AMAZED at the houses down here that were so much better made, better looking, modern construction with 10 and 12 foot ceilings, CBS Construction, R24 insulation (with mine, I also had a chopper gun shoot a shitload of insulation on top of it).
Not all money is created equal, people. It buys a whole lot more in some places than it does in others. Gotta support those lazy ***** who keep voting dimocrap scum into office, doncha know.
And we have no State Income Tax in Florida.
But we do have this....
While New Yawk has this...
I promised myself last time I was there that I would never set foot in that festering pushole of a diseased, scumbag, dimocrap infested malaria swamp ever again.
And I won't.
The people who live there.... They deserve it