What are you talking about? Are you unaware of Prop-13? In CA we have incredibly low property taxes. I once mentioned the amount of property tax I pay here and people (hombre) claimed I was lying. My property tax here is less than 1/5 what it was in Chicago on a similarly valued property.
North Dakota started ripping up the paved roads in '08 and converting them to gravel because they couldn't afford the upkeep on them. The revenue fairy will magically appear and pay for schools, police, fire, etc.. Like I said in another thread, tea party supporters are a comedy goldmine when they start talking economics. And a quick search: Cancer-Causing Mineral Found in U.S. Road Gravel: Erionite in Roads May Increase Risk of Mesothelioma
How much benefit we get from California's Prop-13 depends on when we purchased our houses. I pay low property taxes relative to my neighbors because we bought our house twenty years ago. My neighbor across the street pays almost five times the property taxes I do on a house of about the same current market value because he bought it last year.