Background: The current day crop of carpetbaggers who weasel their way onto town councils and school boards are the same ilk that came down south after the Civil War...(Ulysses Grant, Tecumseh Sherman, Edward Stanton, and other carpetbagging buddies).
Currently they run most of the Southern State and Local governments and are in the pockets of the carpetbagging "developers".
If Gun or Porn shops want to locate in a residential area with churches and schools these Local Government weasels readily issue the Business licenses...hey revenue is revenue...what the hell. They don't have any history in the local communities...their grandparents aren't buried in the local cemetery. They're ususally, originally from Pennsylvania, Michigan, or some other northern state.
Many of these southern communities have been overdeveloped causing property values to inflate to the point the real locals can't afford to pay their property taxes and are forced to leave their home place.
The only way to fix this is to base the property taxes on the original cost of the property not some arbitrary and (in many cases) phony assessment. This will serve three purposes: First, it will eliminate the "house flippers"; Second, it will stop over-development; and Third it will encourage a sense of community by allowing long time residents to stay in their homes because their property taxes are affordable.
For example, a person who moved into the community 20 or 30 years ago bought a home for $30,000 then that amount is what his taxes should be based on, not some perceived market value of $100,000.00. The new resident will be paying $100,000.00 for a comparable home and that amount will be the basis for his/her property tax.
The argument against this will be that long time residents property taxes will go down and services will be affected by the loss of revenue. The local government may correct any shortfall for services by raising the "millage rate" on all the residents - old and new. The millage rate will be applied to the basis i.e., the original cost. So the county government determines it needs to raise the millage rate by .001. That will increase the taxes on a home originally costing $20,000, $20.00. It will increase the taxes on a home costing $2,000,000.00, $2,000.00. Anyone who can afford a 2 million dollar home can surely afford a .001 increase in the millage rate.
The longtime residents taxes will decrease and the more recent residents taxes will generally increase to compensate. This will keep over-development in check. The recent residents comparable home prices are higher because of supply and demand, inflation and a general increase in the cost of living over time. Also, prices are artificially driven up by the house flipping real estate people and property assessors who inflate the values.
The system described will be similar to Proposition 13 passed by the people in California because of skyrocketing property values.
Get your legislator to get it passed in the State government. If he can't, vote him out and find someone who can. Also, petition the State and Local governments. They can't argue with a million or more constituent signatures