I lived in Chicago for close to ten years and I never had any complaints. Got schools, police coverage (perhaps overpoliced, if anything, depending on your opinions about that), fire coverage, trash men come by every day, potholes take a bit long to fix but nothing worth making a stink about; I don't smoke but the ones who do just buy loose leaf tobacco from outside Cook county. So, it's all what you'd expect for the value that gets taken out of your paycheck. If I wanted to rag on my cost of living in Chicago, I wouldn't gripe on taxes - I'd complain about rent control and health insurance costs before complaining about the tax rate.
