Given our Governor’s promise of not raising taxes, any bills
developed by House and Senate committees in Pennsylvania are going to have to
conform to this policy for as long as Corbett is in office. Because of this ‘mandate,’ some ideas are
surfacing in proposed tax-code bills that are gaining support that need to be
examined by the public eye sooner than later.
One such bill is the proposed HB 1776, which would grant
extended taxing authority to municipalities and school districts to help stop-gap
budget shortfalls by the Commonwealth’s cuts in education and
county-administered care funding. These
additional taxes could be an additional 1% sales tax, higher Earned Income Tax
or hikes in the flat taxes charged.
This proposed bill will create a situation where residents
in some school districts will be paying more regressive taxes than our most
taxed states in the country. An example
would be someone who patronizes the shopping districts in Whitehall and South
Whitehall, yet lives in Northern Lehigh or Northampton School districts. These mentioned school districts would be
forced to consider levying an earned income tax or raise a flat tax over an
additional 1% sales tax due to a much smaller retail base. These residents would then pay more taxes at
home, and have to fork out an additional higher sales tax at nearby
merchants. Add to the fact that
Pennsylvania charges the 6th highest gasoline tax and 2nd
highest Diesel tax amounts in the nation, and if these local sales taxes are
instituted, we are now looking more like California, or Connecticut.
Above all, I strongly feel that we will never see a reduction in property taxes, either. Several companies and individuals earn their living on working with property taxes, and would fight to see them removed totally.
We have three very viable and growing potential income
streams that can solve a lot of the issues of funding. When partnered with a solid, smart spending
plan, income from gaming, the lottery and Marcellus Shale gas can keep our
budgets balanced. Our legislators need
to focus on a per-unit tax for all gas that leaves our state. Our lottery needs to benefit more than just
older Pennsylvanians. South Carolina’s
lottery is for education funding… why can’t Pennsylvania do the same? And where is the gaming funding going? We need to get those funds to districts to
help alleviate property tax increases.
Your understanding of the reform bills are not correct. First, there are two separate bills out there proposing property tax reform, HB 1776 and HB2230 and you're getting them confused.
ReplyDeleteHB 1776, which you cite, calls for an increase in the state personal income tax from 3.07% --> 4% and an additional 1% added to the sales tax. It also calls for eliminating most of the items currently exempt from sales tax - which I think most can agree has some ludicrous exemptions. Still, clothes under $50 and all food would still be exempt. There is no component in the HB1776 proposal that calls for new local EIT taxes to be used for property taxes. In fact HB 1776 ELIMINATES the local school EIT tax completely.
HB 1776 also uses additional gaming money to offset local property taxes for education funding, about an extra $1 billion worth.
HB 2230 would allow municipalities to enact new local EIT taxes + a sales tax increase to reduce/replace property taxes. The sales tax component would be levied at the COUNTY-level and distributed COUNTY-WIDE to school districts. The monies are then distributed to each school district based on enrollment numbers. Therefore, your logic is flawed as a school district with a low-sales tax base (like Northern Lehigh) would likely benefit compared to a school district with a high sales-tax base (like Whitehall) as the monies are shared throughout the county. Some would argue the tax money generated in Whitehall SD should stay with it but instead it would go to the Lehigh County pot and be shared.
Of course with HB 2230 the sales tax has to be approved by voters via a county-wide referendum, so they will ultimately decide if they want to institute it or not. If they choose not to, the county/municipality can still go forward with a dollar-for-dollar swap of property taxes for personal income taxes if they so choose.
People need to stop acting like Marcellus Shale is a panacea for all of our problems. Education funding, transportation funding, human services, environmental programs...while it sounds great and makes for great political theater, it can't fund it all even if you had a full-blown severance tax. Additionally, is Marcellus Shale gas going to be around forever? No. Does it provide price stability? No - natural gas prices are at all-time lows. Most importantantly for education we need revenue streams that are consistent and predictable. Fossil fuels are not.
Lottery funds diverted to education? Tell Pennsylvania senior citizens that, who are already fed up paying school taxes "even though I don't have any kids in school." Now we are going to take funds earmarked for their programs and give them to the school too? Property tax rebate program? Just a little from there. LANTA Metro services? What's a couple less routes? Not enough money for your senior center this year? Well we're using that money for education now too. Be real.
I found your website through posts you had on lehighvalleylive. While this might sound harsh, as a candidate for office it is would be wise to make sure you have all your ducks in a row before you post things like this on a public website.
Also, for what it is worth, HB 1776 has bi-partisan support and according to PA Independent has at least 20 Democratic co-sponsors
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