It's not hotels the tax hurts, so I don't think they would have advocated very hard. In fact, to the degree that tax pays for anything related (inspections, etc) they would support it as it would externalize their costs.

> I don't think I have ever seen an example of someone imposing a tax "just because they can".

Of course not, but because it reflects positively on them and yet doesn't impact the pocketbooks of their constituents. Which amounts to "because they can."

> If your state or local community doesn't limit taxing authority

Copyright is limited - to any finite duration. So yeah, there are limits. Our goal as a society shouldn't be to tax everything to the limit though, but to cover externalities to avoid burdening others.

In this case the people presumably using the resources (the tourists) are being taxed, but only indirectly on their hotel stay. This unfairly doubly-impacts a local who needs a room and it ignores the usage costs of those tourists who don't stay in a hotel, or rather saddles the hotel using tourist with the RV-tourist's share.

The fact that the tax badly fits the supposed problem is an indication that it's just a cash grab with any justification tacked on.

> then be part of the change you want and pursue a limit.

The "you're in a democracy so it's all your fault" answer. Fwiw, the first step of change is identifying and discussing the issue.

I'm not saying the answer isn't to change broken governments, but first you need to realize that the system exists to produce this state. We didn't end up here by accident and to fix it will require a reasonable alignment of incentives.

And in America, we all are. Taxes taken without representation, for no good purpose, are theft.

Otherwise you'd be good with a 100% tax rate, right?

The way we ensure good laws, and reasonable taxes, is to call out all unreasonable cases.