Keep The Fight Alive!
Keep the fight alive! It is obvious that our legislators are not going to pass any meaningful property tax reform. There are many reasons why!
First and foremost is the fact that property tax reform in many areas of Pennsylvania seems to be a non-issue so why would representatives and senators vote positively.
Until the homeowner’s throughout the Commonwealth understand that, at a minimum, school property tax can be eliminated, we will not see change. People across the state must become as angry about property taxes as they were about the “pay hikes”.
Most people are not interested in or are afraid of broadened sales and use tax. What may not be understood is that by broadening sales and use tax we can eliminate our biggest burden, which is school property taxes.
Even if a school property tax bill would be only $500.00…..that is $500.00 too much. That same homeowner would have to spend $10,000 in one year on taxable commodities to equal their school property tax bill. The above is an extremely low estimate. Let’s consider the homeowner that is paying $2000.00 per year in school tax…they would have to spend $40,000 on taxable items in one year to equal their school property tax bill.
There is a need to educate the public in general about property tax reform. I can’t believe that if people understood the benefits associated with broadened sales and use tax they would not support it.
Property tax reform needs to happen. Not just property tax relief! Even if the state, in its generosity, gives each homeowner $400.00 in property tax relief how long do you think it will take before your local school board increases your taxes and steals away any relief you might see. The state needs to rescind local school board authority by way of education finance reform, which goes hand in hand with school property tax elimination.
Our elected officials have gone out of their way to keep property tax reform quiet. It is time that we as middle class Pennsylvania homeowner’s get loud!
I continue to encourage everyone to e-mail you friends, family, business acquaintances and educate them as to the benefits of property tax reform as opposed to property tax relief. Unless we get the word out there and have people across the state tell their elected officials that they want school property tax elimination it will not matter who is seated in the House and the Senate….property tax reform won’t happen!
Continue to e-mail representatives and senators to let them know that you want school property tax elimination. Regardless of where these representatives and senators are from they will vote on this issue which in turn directly impacts on your quality of life! Remember, they ALL work for ALL of us!
Please keep the fight alive!
For complete lists of e-mails for Representatives and Senators please write to nopropertytaxes@yahoo.com
First and foremost is the fact that property tax reform in many areas of Pennsylvania seems to be a non-issue so why would representatives and senators vote positively.
Until the homeowner’s throughout the Commonwealth understand that, at a minimum, school property tax can be eliminated, we will not see change. People across the state must become as angry about property taxes as they were about the “pay hikes”.
Most people are not interested in or are afraid of broadened sales and use tax. What may not be understood is that by broadening sales and use tax we can eliminate our biggest burden, which is school property taxes.
Even if a school property tax bill would be only $500.00…..that is $500.00 too much. That same homeowner would have to spend $10,000 in one year on taxable commodities to equal their school property tax bill. The above is an extremely low estimate. Let’s consider the homeowner that is paying $2000.00 per year in school tax…they would have to spend $40,000 on taxable items in one year to equal their school property tax bill.
There is a need to educate the public in general about property tax reform. I can’t believe that if people understood the benefits associated with broadened sales and use tax they would not support it.
Property tax reform needs to happen. Not just property tax relief! Even if the state, in its generosity, gives each homeowner $400.00 in property tax relief how long do you think it will take before your local school board increases your taxes and steals away any relief you might see. The state needs to rescind local school board authority by way of education finance reform, which goes hand in hand with school property tax elimination.
Our elected officials have gone out of their way to keep property tax reform quiet. It is time that we as middle class Pennsylvania homeowner’s get loud!
I continue to encourage everyone to e-mail you friends, family, business acquaintances and educate them as to the benefits of property tax reform as opposed to property tax relief. Unless we get the word out there and have people across the state tell their elected officials that they want school property tax elimination it will not matter who is seated in the House and the Senate….property tax reform won’t happen!
Continue to e-mail representatives and senators to let them know that you want school property tax elimination. Regardless of where these representatives and senators are from they will vote on this issue which in turn directly impacts on your quality of life! Remember, they ALL work for ALL of us!
Please keep the fight alive!
For complete lists of e-mails for Representatives and Senators please write to nopropertytaxes@yahoo.com
posted by Helen | 1:45 PM
4 Comments:
First I need to say that I am taxpayer. I forgot my original login and password so I need to register again.
That said I need to make a few comments. While you say no individual group will be hurt by a sales tax increase whether by expanding or increasing I have to dissagree with you. Every economist that you can talk to will tell you a sales tax is the MOST regressive tax you can pay. I am not sure about numbers in your district but I want to give you a thought about the property tax that most haven't thought about. It is currently the only REAL tax businesses really must pay. Now before you get up in arms about that statement let me explain it. Thye have corporate income taxes and the like but explain to me why a company like MET-ED as an example must advertise? Answer so they get there tax responsibility (income) reduced. Of course I can go on and on about the benefits of being in business and not paying certain taxes because they can afford to do other things that allow them to NOT pay those taxes.
Next let me give you this thought! If I live in a house with the average 2 children. I have a home with an assessed value of $200,000 and my tax rate is 24.5 mils. My annual taxes are $2,450. Now, the average cost of educating a child is as the governor says $9,300. What would it cost that family to educate their children for 13 years. Answer $241,800. At $2,400 per year in taxes it would take me 100.75 years to pay for that education.
Not a bad deal as I would not pay for that education in my lifetime. Even if you look at state funding of the current average of 35% it would still take more than 60 years to pay for their education.
As for school boards and local control, the state could not handle a state run system. Their best program for state health insurance was more expensive than what all Berks County districts are now paying and the benefits and deductibles were worse! Again this is just one example.
Do I believe we need reform? You bet. But I also believe your earlier post is really right on and that is we need to have education funding reform! It cannot include anything that the state is to collect and distribute as they will keep all interest that schools earn currently. It also will take time as it does now for those distributions to get to the districts as it does now. It takes on average of 2 years for districts to get their subsidies from the state. Yes, subsidies that the schools receive today are for usually 2 years ago.
I know I have put a lot of info in this comment. I also have researched the tax reform proposals in the legislature and they would ALL be bad for education. THats our kids education I am talking about. WE need a multi - prong approach to reform. We must provide at the state level the 50% basic education funding that is need and provide it every year! We need to have the state provide funding for the 100+ state amndates the school distrcts must meet. We need the federal government to provide funding for its mandates including but not limited to NCLB and IDEA as well as all its Special Education mandates. In addition we now need reassessment at the local level. There are businesses now challenging their assessment and winning decisions that cost all municipalities and the schools hundreds of thousands of dollars that we the home owner must now pick up. We must watch school district spending and ne sure that our individual boards are handling their money properly. I think backend referendum is ok if it is made a part of all budgets for all municipal governments not just school boards. I will write again but need to end this now! Please think about my comments!
I do apologize for not checking the posting of the numbers. It is 50 years not 100 to pay for the education because I did not double the cost of the education for 2 students and I am Sorry! You can adjust the numbers accordingly and still it will take a large number of years to cover that expense! Again sorry for not checking the numbers before I posted the comment!
Dear Taxpayer 2,
Thanks so much for your recent comments. You have made some very valid points. I do believe in elimination of property tax for residential properties. I don't believe we should expand that relief into business. It is the elderly and middle class that are currently shouldering the burden of school property tax because business and the wealthy have ways of sheltering their monies.
I would like to point out that your figures on taxes on a $200,000 home were incorrect. If taxes are 24.50 mills that would equal $24.50 on each thousand of assessed value which would be $4,900.00 per year in school property tax alone. This amount is not enough to cover the cost of education for 1 child under our current system. But, people like myself, who have no children in school are paying this tax. Berks County where I live is a very high senior population.
Yes, our Governor states that the cost of education is over $9,000 per student. In looking carefully at the budgeting process within my district I can assure you that there is a tremendous amount of money wasted. Various school districts spend between $4,000 and $9,000 per student annually. The wealthier the community the more the school district can tax and spend. Our school districts in many areas across the Commonwealth are operating in a deficit and continue to look to taxpayers in the community as a bottomless source of revenues.
Yes, most definitely school mandates are unfunded or severly underfunded. This situation needs to be corrected. Teachers contracts have spun out of control and need to be reevaluated. This is a whole other area that I will not go into at this time but to say that this area needs serious attention for many, many reasons.
I believe that our children are our future and do not want to see anything happen that would diminish quality of education. But some of our "taj mahal" expensive schools do nothing to improve academic achievement. They are more spectacular that some city college campuses. We need to get serious about education and see that all children are educated in the same way regardless of the wealth of the community in which they live.
I still believe that a broadened sales and use tax would equally distribute the burden of taxes. Yes, it is a regressive tax but in reality no more regressive than taxing people on their real property. Our seniors, after working all their lives and paying off their mortgages, cannot afford to be paying rent to the Commonwealth by way of property taxes. And, our middle class who are struggling to make it are being taxed out of their homes with the ever increasing school property taxes. My taxes have gone up 82% in only 9 years. Where does it end?
I still believe that the State needs to take control of school budgeting in order to end the free for all spending occurring in many districts. The correct vehicle to make this successful would need to be carefully thought out before put in place but I do believe that it can work. It has been very successful in other states and can work in Pennsylvania also.
I really appreciated hearing from you and would like to keep an open dialogue. It is good for all of us concerned to keep an open mind and share our ideas.
Helen
I too am a long standing Pa residence. Answer one question. Why should those who no longer have children in school continue to fund our under educated and failing education system with our hard earned dollars? This doesn't just speak to senior citizens! I mean all who no longer have school age children.
When my kids were young the school board and meetings were a farce. Our neighborhood joined in and even filed petitions, NOT TO BUILD A NEW EXPENSIVE SCHOOL in Topton.
We knew it would dramatically raise our taxes!
This went un-noticed.
Obviously, our elected officials and school board could care less what the common citizen thinks.
REPEAL ALL SCHOOL PROPERTY TAX. Let them find the money somewhere else that is more fair to the population. Stop using the middle age American home owner to fund your pet projects to which we had no vote.
We all want good education for children with quality schools, Let's make sure everyone takes an equal share of the decision and responsibility.
Thank You
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