Good for you nz! Glad to hear your ER has been fulfilling and that you're putting your abilities to use in such a meaningful way.
Here in the States I live in Fairfax County Virginia. It's an insanely expensive county, with a government that never saw a dollar they could not spend. It's also a large county (probably 1-2 million people?), so politics here is pretty sophisticated/professional and full time. During the heyday when housing was going through the roof (pre-2008), property taxes skyrocketed without limit. Ours doubled in just 3 years; thankfully I was not an old person on a fixed income. There is no appeal of assessments. Last year we paid $15,000 in property taxes on our modest primary home and 2 very modest rental homes (primary home alone was $7000 of that total). And somehow the government finds a way to spend every cent collected, any surplus is always spent.
We do get good services in return, and since it's a high income area (and pretty pretentious IMO), it has good schools and so on. But I could definitely go with less luxury and more fiscal prudence. It has a reputation of being a very welcoming place if you're in need of "assistance." People living in free or subsidized housing here are typically in pretty luxurious apartments with pools, gyms, on-site security, cable TV included, lounges, concierge, etc.
