Even Adam Smith believed that taxes should be proportional to one's ability to pay.  

In essence, property taxes are a surrogate for income tax since wealthier people tend to buy more expensive homes/land.  A major problem arises, however, when a person with property loses their income for some reason.  Then they may not be able to afford the property tax.  This is especially a problem for retirees on fixed and limited income.  It doesn't seem right to me that a person who has paid off their home before retirement should face the possibility of losing that home because they can't afford the property tax.

Might be fairer to eliminate property tax completely and institute a proportional income tax.  That would protect the dwindling middle class home owner during retirement at least.