Property Tax Reform-plank-Taxpayer Alliance

==Pennsylvania Taxpayers Associations Denounce Passage of Special Session HB 39==
:Source: 6/19/2006
Taxpayer groups unanimously denounce the passage of Special Session HB
39 and call for its immediate repeal.
Pennsylvania Legislators had a golden opportunity to pass real property
tax reform but instead pandered to special interest groups, including
but not limited to the PSBA, abandoning representation of the citizens
they were elected to represent.
The goal, property tax reform, was somehow discarded as the debate
progressed. We cite the following major issues that exacerbate
inequities in public school funding and are likely to contribute to the
continued rapid escalation in property taxes:
===1.===
The shift to a higher local earned income tax under SSHB 39 in
exchange for an offsetting reduction in property tax is not tax reform
and does nothing to solve inequitable funding across all school
districts.
===2.===
Stressed school districts that have insufficient assessed value
to support education also lack a sufficient earned income base,
rendering the shift to local earned income tax useless in solving
funding inequities.
===3.===
Small rebates that may become available from slots revenue do
not impact property tax reduction equally. In fact, the highest
gambling subsidies are provided to school districts where the tax burden
is low and the lowest subsidies are provided to districts where the tax
burden is the greatest. SSHB 39 also exacerbates funding inequities
with widely disparate EIT rates in order to fund a basic Pennsylvania
Constitutional requirement, violating the tax uniformity clause.
===4.===
The threshold permitted before a school district must seek voter
referendum is not based on the cost of living index as many legislators
have led us to believe. In fact, it varies by school district and is
currently between 3.9% and 6.5%, with the higher limits in areas where
property tax is already the most burdensome. Fearful school boards will
likely reach for the limit whether needed or not, further contributing
to out-of-control property taxes.
===5.===
The exemptions to the backend referendum are so generous that
they render it useless in the vast majority of districts. To
illustrate, of the 110 districts which opted in to Act 72, only 1
required voter referendum, even though many districts proposed budget
increases in excess of their district=92s index. Further, budgeting is
not exact and creative school boards will rearrange line items, creating
the appearance that large increases fall within the exemptions. True
reform will end school boards=92 powers to tax and fund public education
with state revenues.
===The pay raise was a bad idea and was repealed. SSHB 39 is even worse and must be immediately repealed.===
True property tax reform would have returned real ownership of homes to ALL homeowners by eliminating property taxes and controlling costs through economies of scale, thereby
solving funding inequities across all school districts and stimulating
the economy. However, it received no support from Speaker John Perzel,
who informed members of the House that he did not care about this issue.
The pay raise debacle opened one eye of a sleeping giant. SSHB 39 has
opened the other. Taxpayer groups from all over the Commonwealth are
networking and now plan a joint meeting to denounce SSHB 39 and any
legislator who voted in favor of it. Before November, legislators must
do the right thing =96 repeal it!
: Contact: Cheryl Zaleski, Director of Communications, Coatesville Taxpayers Alliance, czaleski@casdtaxpayeralliance.com, 610 380 0743
==Links==
* Property Tax Reform
category:Planks_from_elsewhere