Very different time and I am referring to the city of anchorage when he was mayor. The state is going bankrupt now.With the stupidity going on there I don't see that changing. Begich stopped projects that already had been planned and money spent just because he did not like the firms that did the planning. I don't mind paying tax's Parks are a big deal to me Begich did nothing for parks.  I was part of a project that already had 250,000 dollars invested in design and architecture the total project would have been 900,000. We spent 1/4 million designing it to not build it, money down the toilet thanks Begich. The city is still in bad shape now the property taxes are a bigger burden on owners and renters alike.   And Your answer is you are supposed to invest in the economy to stimulate it which will bring sales, incomes, and property values up, generating more taxes. But people of anchorage where stupid enough not to implement sales, or income tax so well its not getting fixed.