Out of luck

My recent run of good luck came to an end today.
You know, everything has been running so smoothly for me. Like, the whole university thing, the big trip, finally getting most of my stuff packed, posted or recycled.
But today I opened the post box to find my annual city and precture tax bill. It's only gone and doubled since last year. Not a pleasant surprise.
It seems that they have reformed the tax law to rebalance the monies going to national, prefectural and city governments. Before there used to be three tax brackets in Kanagawa: at a 5%, 10% or 13% rate. Now, they've decided to impose a flat 10%rate on most people regardless of their income.
They couldn't have waited one more year to introduce this social revolution? It's lukcy I'm a saver, I'll tell you that much.
So as a foreign resident, what do I get for giving the city 10% of my income?
Voting rights? No.
Pension or health care? No.
Police protection? In theory, yes. But have you seen the bang up job these guys have been doing lately? The guy who killed the Nova teacher still hasn't been caught - and there were 9 police officers there at the time of arrest!
So I figure I'm paying all that money for public lighting and rubbish collection. And you all know that if the item is over 50cm you have to pay again for it to be collected!
At this stage I'd be willing to have the public lights turned off if they would give me some of my hard earned money back.
I can carry a torch.