The nice thing about property and sales tax is that you can control your expenses. Live in a smaller house, pay less in property taxes. Spend less, save more, then pay less in sales taxes. It's a system that really incentivizes saving.
If your are rich enough to have that luxury. If you make minimum wage and all of your income is spent on rent, food, and transportation, you can't pay less in sales taxes. You can't save what isn't left and you get taxed at a higher rate than those who make more and have the luxury of choosing the "cheaper option".
As an added refinement, real estate transactions in Texas are not public records, so there is not even that to provide a dose of reality to assessments; it allows large expensive properties to more-easily remain undervalued for taxation.
Wait, what? I was completely unaware that there existed places where real estate transactions were not public records. Are there other states like this?
