Lifelong Republican consultant Aaron Renn says Republicans are harping the abolishment of property taxes when they should be obsessed with using property taxes and other revenue sources to provide suburban voters services like parks, scenery, sidewalks and more services.
“Suburbanites increasingly expect local government to provide high-quality public goods, services and amenities, such as modern playgrounds and trail networks. They want to have a bustling walkable downtown. They want public amenities to match their private ones, and they are willing to pay for it,” Renn told the New York Times.
Renn used “very Republican” Saratoga Springs, Utah, as an example, pointing out that a large margin of residents voted last year to raise sales taxes to pay for arts, parks and recreation. Medina County, Ohio, near Cleveland, where President Trump won more than 60 percent of the vote in 2024, approved a tax levy for the operation and expansion of parks.
“In the past decade, of almost 30 school property tax referendums in largely Republican suburban Indianapolis, only two failed. Suburbs don’t always vote to approve taxes, but they frequently do — even in very Republican areas,” said Renn, who has written extensively on cities, culture, the future of the evangelical church. “My own city, Carmel, Ind., … has been a Republican bastion for decades. It has made big investments in infrastructure, amenities and public services. It has built more than 150 roundabouts, virtually eliminating traffic congestion. It has an extensive network of trails and parks, public art installations [and] events … making it a perennial presence on national ‘best cities’ lists.”
Educated voters, including in the suburbs, have shifted strongly to the left over the past 20 to 30 years, said Renn.
“Even Carmel backed Kamala Harris in 2024. Though the reasons for this are complex, I’d argue one of the causes is that they are increasingly alienated by state Republican parties that want to impose a Tea Party-style austerity governance model on them,” said Renn. “They don’t want their state to force them to live in a bare-bones community. Why would they vote for a party that promises to make their community worse by eliminating its main source of tax revenue?”
Renn said losing the suburban professional vote by promising to eviscerate local services is a loss that could come back to bite Republicans when Trump is no longer on the ballot to drive huge turnout among lower-propensity and rural voters.
“Rhetoric around eliminating property taxes may play well with boomer retirees in the next political campaign, but actually doing so would be the Republican Party eating its demographic seed corn for the future while turning its back on a proven model of success and undermining local communities and the critical public services they rely on,” Renn said.
Read the New York, Times column at this
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