We get taxed on both the land and the structure in MA. We have a law that the taxes can not be raised more than 21/2% without and override. BUT they can reset the valuation on your property with no limit and funny how that doesnt seem to go down. Our schools take up the majority of the town budget 5 elementary, 1 middle, 1 high school and 1 tech. The other issue here is that we have a college and a private school that don't pay any taxes but use our resources ie fire, police, ambulance. The children of the employees that live on these campuses send their children to the public schools. The university promised money to the town every year to pay for the municipalities, then pulled it after one year. Thankfully the state has not made any cuts to the school budgets yet, that will tell you how much fat is at the state level. Taxes are getting out of control everywhere sales tax just went up, the "sin" taxes are as high as 60% (cigarettes, liquor and whatnot).