FROM: State Rep. Tim Seip, 125th Legislative District
DATE: Aug. 27, 2007
SUBJECT: Letter to the Editor responding to critical letter that ran Aug. 27
Seip outlines actions on property tax reform
In response to a recent letter to the editor, I would like to reaffirm my commitment to property tax relief for homeowners.
In addition to co-sponsoring the leading plan for property tax relief, H.B. 1600, I am also taking the following actions:
- Introducing a bill (H.B. 1225) to allow school boards and local governments to offer property tax and rent rebates to senior citizens, widowers or widows 50 or older and permanently disabled adults, as the state already does.
- Developing legislation to ban unfair “spot” assessments that are initiated because a property is sold, despite the fact that a similar or identical property nearby may continue to be taxed at a lower rate.
- Developing a bill that would limit new uses of gaming revenue, which would ensure the maximum amount of funding available for property tax relief.
- Co-sponsoring pending legislation to require school districts to keep costs down by choosing from a standard set of blueprints for new schools.
- Investigating how we can rein in the cost of online cyber charter schools. For example, these schools are costing $300,000 for just 39 children in one of the school districts I represent, Hamburg Area. One way to save taxpayers money might be to have school districts handle the same function, either alone or in joint arrangements.
We need to come at the property tax situation from several different angles – like the large, complicated problem of health care, we’ll need more than one bill to achieve a good result. One of the strongest points in favor of H.B. 1600 is that it would not require waiting two to four years to fully take effect, unlike some other plans such as H.B. 125 that was mentioned in the letter. House Bill 1600 has a real chance of becoming law and helping overburdened homeowners in Schuylkill and Berks counties as soon as next year. We can’t afford to wait.
Rep. Tim Seip
125th Legislative District
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