[uberman]

Most local tax, certainly the lion's share of property taxes go to public schooling and services like fire fighters, sanitation, police, public works, and park and rec.

Could we privatize all those things or set usage fees? Probably. Where I live many things like your well, sceptic system, garbage collection are privatized but that only works when one lives in the country. It would be impossible to privately implement most public services in urban settings. I don't think I would want to live in a city where trash collection was left up to the individual to work out how to address. Even then, you are going to end up paying for these services somehow right? In fact, I would rather my county work out a bulk trash collection contract likely at a discount and tax me for it based on the number of bedrooms I have than leave that to me to figure out with a bill I have to manage every month.

Your mileage may vary as they say but while I hate paying tax, I do enjoy the services they support and I don't see them as any kind of theft.