It has more than 2,000 members. The tax considered most responsible for perpetuating sprawl is the property tax, Hanger and others in the anti-sprawl movement, including builders, said yesterday. There are two primary reasons that the state's tax structure should be reworked, she said. First, because the property tax is the main funding source for schools and other municipal services, municipalities generally are eager for new development, thus accommodating more sprawl. Second, property taxes in Philadelphia and its inner-ring suburbs are usually higher than in the newer suburbs because there are more schools, roads and residents to support.
Residents move out, lured in part by lower property taxes in the outer suburbs.
That leaves the cities and their inner-ring suburbs with the same schools to support and roads to fix, but with fewer taxpayers to help pay for it all. PennFuture is proposing property tax cuts for cities and inner-ring suburbs, to be offset by revenues from fees on waste disposal and air pollution. The alternative of cutting taxes in the cities and older suburbs and raising them in the newer suburbs would not be politically viable, Hanger said. Bucks County Republican State Rep. David J. Steil's package of anti-sprawl bills will be considered by the House Local Government Committee today in Harrisburg. It does not include property-tax relief, but has various tools and incentives for municipalities to work together to plan for growth.