Adjusting taxes without sims leaving in SimCity 3000

Contributor/author(s): Noel Yuseco

Sims escaping because taxes are too high?

In general, a properly leveraged city will not necessitate higher tax rates. You will also notice that the program discourages this and you will soon end up with a ghost town.

But let's say you've borrowed too much, which I define as "your total debt exceeds total revenues per annum", and in the absence of scale economies, your left with no option but to increase taxes (hopefully, temporarily) to keep you afloat. Which taxes do you play with?

Both industry and commerce are very sensitive to tax changes. Thus, an increase in taxes, almost immediately (within a few months) would lead to poor demand. However, sims are less reactive to residential tax. As long as your sims have enough jobs, they seem not to mind paying a bit higher residential tax. So when the city is in dire straits, and you contemplate raising taxes, you may keep residential taxes higher for a longer period compared to industrial and commercial taxes. But remember, patience and understanding are not known to be your sims' virtues.

See also
Taxes: making money fast
The tax flux