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There's a difference between paying a $10 hourly wage and contributing to a pool of resources.

I'm guessing my own contribution would be far less than $10 per hour if this were tax financed.

If you and I can agree to each pay $5/h, maybe let's start there and find other people who also want to pay? Wouldn't that be better?

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Kind of an a-la-carte approach to civic responsibilities? I can envision ways in which it'd work, and people would feel better about it (in general) than they do taxes. It seems like something like this would work best at a local level, which would obviously apply to the particular example we're discussing. In theory, I'd be on board with it, as long as federal programs/taxes remained. If you found a way to implement it on a larger scale, I'd be surprised/impressed.

But why should it be surprising? So many people advocate for change just like you do; what mechanism could keep the idealism from being realizable?

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