First of all, property taxes are far more regressive than progressive. There are ways to tax which aren't as burdensome. Consider a consumption tax, for instance. Consumption taxes or luxury taxes are far better ways to tax than property taxes.

An income tax isn't terrible either, however I think you'd be hard pressed to prove that we couldn't/shouldn't signifcantly reduce federal government overhead. If the income tax worked like it did when it was first implemented, it'd be fine. In its current form it amounts to 20-30% of everyone's budget. That's pretty god damn insane.