I believe that is definitely part of it, but it's also a lifetime of hearing about government waste, bills passed with tons of "pork" spending, witnessing government mismanagement of resources, and concern that the government is not necessarily the best way to solve every problem. And then once you decide that a particular issue is best addressed by the government, there's a valid debate over which level of government (e.g. in the U.S. stuff done at the federal level often has a reputation for being bloated, slow-moving, and less effective than it could be).

Decades of Democratic propaganda have led the average left-of-center voter to believe higher taxes, for any reason are a) taking money from greedy Republicans to redistribute wealth, and/or b) going to turn America into a socialist state. See how that works.