I'm not aware of having met anyone who has ever said "I want to pay more tax", but I've met plenty of people who have said "that other group of people should pay more tax".

This isn't true at all. It's very difficult to get a government to decrease the services it provides. If you decrease taxes without decreasing provided services, then that would be extremely easy to do -- until you run out of money. Look at the cluster fuck that is Kansas.

> I'm not aware of having met anyone who has ever said "I want to pay more tax"

In that case, you must either not live in the US or else live in a place with either really shit or really parasitic public schools. A huge percentage of school districts are majority funded by local (not state) tax dollars, at rates that are approved directly (i.e., by ballot measure).

Schools are the most obvious case because increases in (local) taxes that fund schools are typically ballot measures, and usually affect the population in a pretty homogenous way (except in very urban areas, but even then, property owners are usually a key voting block in local elections). But there are other taxes that a lot of people support increasing and would end up paying -- gas tax, alcohol tax, etc.

If you've really never met someone who said "I want to pay more taxes", then that's really just an indication that you're living in a bubble. It's not at all an uncommon sentiment. In fact, I'd say that "some of the taxes I pay could be higher if it's spent on the right things" is a far more common sentiment than "taxes bad, period".

And it's about focus. I live in Vancouver. The city should probably be focusing on the downtown eastside and on transit. In SF, the city should probably focus on Muni/BART and the Tenderloin. It's a matter of focus.

It's about competency. The city's website and mobile Apps are not very good. The coffee shops in my neighborhood can't get wifi right. I don't have confidence in the city being able to deliver wifi better than that.

Cost. Focus. Competence.