I'm always surprised at how high local taxes are in the US and that they only seem to be paid by homeowners as far as I can see and not by renters. To me that sounds quite odd.
I'm a homeowner, our property is maybe worth €200k and we pay like €750-1000/year for all local taxes combined. Some taxes are hidden, for example in the water bill, so this is an estimate.
Wow. To pay only $1000 in state and local taxes in a year! Once I enter into retirement, what I pay to state and local governments will be more than I pay the Federal government as I'll no longer be paying into our Federal pension scheme (social security), and will presumably be in a lower or at least not any higher (Federal) marginal income tax bracket.
As for property taxes, renters do not pay those directly in the US, but they pay them indirectly as part of their rent. My property taxes, which are probably on the lower end, are roughly $4000 a year. Plus I pay a state income tax (about 5-6% marginal rate), plus I pay state and local sales tax (VAT) of 6%, plus any hidden taxes on gasoline, alcohol, vehicle registration, licenses, property transfer taxes, etc. And my state is probably on the middle end when it comes to taxes. States such as NJ/NY/CA typically have much higher taxes.
There is this theme that Europeans pay significantly more in taxes than Americans. When you add it all together, it's not quite as big of a difference.
Yet for some reason we in the FI community seem to be more concerned about the economic impact of 0.5% to 1% in investment fees on our portfolio while ignoring the long term impact of upwards of 7-10% marginal state income tax rates that some folks are paying.