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EDITORIAL |
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CONTACT:
Lauren Rooney |
State Rep. John
Galloway
State Rep. Chris King D-Bucks |
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To: Guy Petroziello, Editorial/Opinion Page Editor
From: State Reps. John Galloway and Chris King, D-Bucks
Subject: Time to take partisan politics out of property tax debate
Please consider the following editorial by state Rep. John Galloway and Rep. Chris King regarding the House effort to reduce property taxes. If you need more information, please contact Lauren Rooney at 717-787-7895, e-mail lrooney@pahouse.net, or Nicole Reigelman at 717-787-7895, email nreigelman@pahouse.net.
Our system of funding public education solely on the backs of property owners is antiquated and failing and needs to be reformed, yet the call for real property tax reform has gone unanswered for decades.
Clearly, property tax is not an easy problem to solve. Ask a dozen people if property taxes are too high, and chances are you’ll get a dozen “yes” answers. Ask if property taxes should be eliminated, or at least reduced, and it’s likely all 12 will again say “yes.”
But ask people how to do that and odds are you’ll get a dozen different ideas. And therein lies the problem.
Before we can move forward on reducing property taxes, we must agree on three things:
1) Educating our children is a public good as it benefits everyone. And the cost should be shared by everyone -- not just property owners and not just parents.
2) Lowering property taxes will require us to raise other taxes.
3) This is an issue in need of a solution that reaches across party lines because it stands to benefit everyone regardless of their political affiliation.
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Ideas for lowering property taxes fall into two basic categories: raising and/or expanding the state sales tax to currently non-taxed items such as food and clothing; and raising the Personal Income Tax. Both ideas would spread the responsibility of funding education more evenly throughout our community. House members are holding a series of public hearings across the Commonwealth to discuss all the options on the table, and to get public input. We hosted one of these hearings in August during the day, and plan to hold additional hearings this fall during the evening.
Taking partisanship out of the property tax debate is paramount in getting the job done. One of the big reasons we feel the legislature has not been able to provide meaningful property tax reduction is because the two sides of the political aisle haven’t met in the middle. However, with so many new House members, there may be no better time to break the partisan barrier on property taxes than right now.
Many of us freshmen were elected on a promise of changing how things are done in Harrisburg. What better issue to show that we are serious about that than property tax reduction? We call on our fellow freshmen House members to come together to find common ground on this issue and show the old dogs how it’s done.
Eliminating property taxes entirely would require amending the state constitution – a long and arduous process. But cutting property taxes in half could be done legislatively right now. We need to put partisan politics aside and take this bold step. Whatever the best solution to this problem is, we need to put partisanship aside.
Senior citizens living on fixed incomes are being taxed out of their homes. Even young families are finding it increasingly difficult to keep pace with property taxes, which may cause them to choose to raise their families elsewhere.
While there are many ideas, one thing remains clear: property tax reduction must be guaranteed and not just a bait-and-switch scam from the legislature. We vow to deliver on this promise, and invite your ideas.
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