Mostly with property taxes, which are mostly voted on by the people that get
taxed, at least where I come from.  They issue bonds to do things, or have an
education levee.  There's much politicing, and ads for and against on the radio
and TV, and then people vote.  Education levees are hard to get passed a lot of
the time.

Also, in some places, there are local income taxes.  Those too get voted on by
the people that get taxed, often but not 100%.  The city says they'll have to
cut (something dear - like police, fire, or ambulance) and we'd better pass it
or else, but of course they could have made it up by cutting fluff that nobody
cares about - everybody knows it - and so there's sometimes that the extra tax
doesn't pass anyway.  Then the city figures out how not to cut the cops, fire,
or ambulace and go ahead and cut the fluff anyway, or maybe not, if they were
actually telling the truth (rare...)

Its fairly contentious, tho - but keeps the city elected leaders from just
arbitrarily raising taxes whenever they feel like it.  That was is the way to
have huge taxes.

Dave Head