>My quibble with your assertion is that if property taxes were higher it would also hit the lower income citizens as well. Those property taxes would just be passed along as an increase in their rent.
Rent is determined by supply of housing and demand for housing, not taxation. Property owners would eat the cost and the price of properties would probably drop accordingly (higher taxes = a less attractive purchase).
It's true in SF, NY and few other places in US where cost of housing is determined by ability to pay. In the rest of the country cost of housing is a cost of building a house/rental property with a reasonable margin on top - with almost no correlation with local ability to pay (as long as it's higher than cost of building or maintaining a housing unit). If you increase property taxes, it will increase rental prices.
I am saying that supply and demand are not working in SF/NY and a few other places. Or to be more exact supply is non-elastic - increase in demand does not increase supply. In cities with available land if there is a demand for housing, you just build more housing.
Rent is determined by supply of housing and demand for housing, not taxation. Property owners would eat the cost and the price of properties would probably drop accordingly (higher taxes = a less attractive purchase).