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@sj_zero @francisscottkey Local income taxes are definitely a "get the hell out!" red line. Not required to make Blue hellholes, but are there any exceptions where cities have them??
Willy Sutton's famous saying, he is reputed to have replied to the question of why he robbed banks "because that's where the money is," universally applies. The current "city fathers" of my home town are corrupt as hell ... but they don't have that much money to play with. Perhaps that helps deter worst sorts, they are pretty much limited to George Plunkitt's "honest graft," which credibly per Wikipedia:
"In one of his speeches, quoted in Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, he describes the difference between dishonest and honest graft. For dishonest graft, one works solely for one's own interests. For honest graft, one pursues, at the same time, the interests of one's party, state, and person.
"He made most of his money through the purchase of land that he knew would be needed for public projects. He would buy such parcels and then resell them at an inflated price. This was honest graft. Dishonest graft, according to Plunkitt, would be buying land and then using influence to have a project built on it."
So our money is largely spent on the standard things of that ~1911 NYC period, "public goods" which are defined as things that can't or maybe aren't deniable, at least in practice, to any particular person. Police and firemen. Public health, schools and libraries, the former sane when COVID hit. Directly or indirectly the basic utilities of technological civilization, potable water, sanitary sewer, electricity, and natural gas.
Roads and this is one of the most easily visible things. Back when I was living in the Boston area in the 1990s, the difference was immediate and stark between state maintained non-Interstate Federal highways, Massachusetts and then Red New Hampshire.
We see and hear about the government and utility companies doing maintenance work on all of these and we approve of it. The city fathers waste (too much) money or lie to us about what they're going to spend a new tax on, and they don't get more new taxes or old ones renewed if that happens.
Scale is also critical both to graft opportunities and voting them out. Here we have sent many in political positions back home to spend more time with their families after bad behavior. Real political machines don't allow that, although the smart ones police themselves, and have fixers like Harry S. Truman who clean messes up once they become unpalatable.
Also ought to mention Exit, Loyalty, and Voice (the book I've previously mentioned) and US ... wanderlust?? We're more willing than many other people's to move elsewhere, that's exit after voice fails and loyalty is lost, which is causing places like California and L.A. (I'm pretty sure, but San Francisco is the outstanding example in that state) to bleed people who are net gains to the polity.