Voters Will Vote on Property Tax Referendum in November

ballotThe state Senate voted today to put an amendment referendum on the November ballot that would allow for larger decreases in local property taxes.  

The Senate voted 46-2 in favor of the referendum, which passed unanimously out of committee earlier this month.  

The referendum will allow voters to decide if they want to allow local taxing organizations, such as counties, school districts, and municipalities, to up to 100 percent of the median assessed value of homestead property from taxes.  This would be an increase from the current limit of 50 percent that was passed by voters in 1997.

24 Responses

  1. Yeah, this is nothing more than a gimmick. Something the PA legislature has become very good at as of late. None of the local governmental entities are actually going to reduce it by that (and certainly not without replacing it in some other way), but the legislature will be able to say that it was able to do something on property tax. The only two senators that voted against it were Brooks and Hutchinson. I would love to know their reasoning.

  2. There goes the public school system down the drain, which it was already swirling around. You know taxpayers will be greedy and selfish, thinking only of themselves, not future generations, especially as PA ages at a fast rate. Downward spiral is now guaranteed if this referendum passes.

    1. Read the law ! Referendum means nothing. Just ALLOWS taxing authorities to reduce. None will unless HBSB76 passes. And it should!

  3. The TEACHERS union rules Harrisburg, They pay big money to make sure the “Bunch” are kept in line….Legislators fear the union more than the voters!
    Just eliminate property taxes and fund schools on an even plain!
    Teachers Rule…..do not cross the teachers union.

    1. Ridiculous, how many members of the majority party in Hbg. care about or pay attention to the teachers unions? How many receive campaign funds? Probably very few if not zero. But, how many, especially the leadership, pay attention to the School Boards Association and the Pennsylvania Chamber of Commerce and Industry? They should be looking at taxing all income, not just the earned income of the wage earners and the sales taxes they pay. People of means with little to no earned income who have been paying large amounts of property taxes will be the real winners.

      1. You are exactly correct. And that’s what PA legislature wants for its GOP donors.

  4. This is so wrong !!!!!! Why cant we have the choice to eliminate all 100% school property tax and go to a sales tax what most people wantt ???? This plan leaves the poorest new renters the young tenants and small businedss paying for everything so wrong so unfair. what senators Gen Yaw would even consider voting for this??? Ben franklin said everyone needs to chip in a nickel for the fire hose (tax) how far are we gonna stray from this concept??

    1. It’s all about local control. If you are unhappy with the increase in property taxes at the local level, then you can vote against local government officials who increased the taxes. Not sure what you mean that it affects young renters.

      1. Tim, young families would be affected. Items not currently taxed would be subject to 7% such as baby formula and diapers. If you live with an infant and toddler, you would understand just how substantial a cost that 7% is!

        1. Sorry that argument doesn’t hold up. We spend about 200 dollars a month for our toddler which equates to about 14 dollars we month or 168 per year. This is a far cry from our property tax bill of over 6000 for our average size home which was assessed at far more than we could ever sell it for. To spend the same amount in sales tax as we pay in property tax we would have to spend more than we actually make in a year. Do the math and you will see for yourself.

          1. Your story does not add up. If your taxes are really that high, why did you buy there? Also, have you ever heard of appealing your assessment? If it is as bad as you claim, then a reduction should be easy to get.

          2. Our home is about 1300 square feet, assessed at $126,000 for a tax of $5,000. Welcome to Jenkintown. Send me your email, and I’ll send you a photo of my tax bill. When we bought it in 2002, the total tax was just over $3,000. Happy?

            You don’t own a home, do you?

      2. Really? Do you really think most people give a crap about keeping up with boring school board meetings, or will spend time spreading the word in a campaign.

        In my district only 3 out of 9 board members are affected by my vote. Its the clueless ones, or the teachers union member on the board in the other areas of the dostrict causing problems. And on voting day, ALL VOTERS DO is vote straight party, or vote for the endirsed candidate selected by party leadership that ONLY CARE about winning, not local school issues.

        The PA COMMONWEALTHS PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM should be financed like any other PA FUNCTION…IE THE STATE POLICE, PennDot, State Colleges…..via STATE TAXES.

        SCHOOL DISTRICTS AND GOVERNMENT HAVE BECOME FOR PROFIT businesses that CONTROL ALL finaNcial DECISIONS, their OWN BENEFITS, THEIR OWN PENSIONS. You can pay off your home…and then LOSE IT so some teacher is insured his pension pool is guaranteed to profir by a minimum of 7.5% via your property taxes.

    2. In order to replace property tax revenue with sales tax revenue alone, you are talking about an increase of several percent, which would likely give us one of, if not the highest sales tax in the country, which would inevitably lead to more people shopping out-of-state where possible. It would be incredibly regressive, affecting the poorest people the most. And it would be extremely elastic, resulting in revenues sharply decreasing during economic downturns, and putting school districts, counties, etc. in fiscal crises whenever consumption dips.

      Property taxes, in contrast, are more stable and predictable sources of revenue. The biggest problem is that state lawmakers “hold the line” on taxes, by refusing to adequately fund public education, which really means that they force school districts to increase property taxes instead. The problem there is that property taxes rarely go back down once they are increased, where a temporary Personal Income Tax increase with, say, a three year sunset provision, automatically goes back down and can be used to address short-term fluctuations, as it has been successfully used to do so several times in the past.

      1. I’m not sure I agree about replacing property taxes with sales taxes, but funding schools with property taxes helps ensure rich districts stay rich and poor districts stay poor.

      2. Replacing property taxes with sales tax would be extremely regressive and hit poor hard, as they rarely own property, but give the rich a huge tax break. Income and wealth inequality would be enhanced. Is that a desired effect? For the GOP PA legislature, probably YES.

        1. Most of what the poor buys would not be taxed, and they already don’t pay income taxes.

    3. Think ed expensive try treasonous russian fake cristian education plan how about the scumbagilicans pay their fair share rather than a free ride to their 1% overlords here one merk pays zip in taxes! 27 of the 28 state with oil & gas pay a severence tax except pennsylvania texas pays 10% zip from the upper devonian zip from uticta zip from marcellas not a nickle for tax with twice the reserves of saudia arabia jut exaxtly how much was stupid military deal with the country responsible for 911. grrrrr! There are no more repubilican olny treachous treason scamers in the words of our fake pres i just want to tell every SCUMBAGILIAN a F U election comming!!!!

      1. Read the above again and ask yourself, seriously do you want to lessen funding to schools? If so, prepare yourself for more of the above.

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  • Will tonight's U.S. Senate debate affect your decision?


    • No. I've already decided on how to cast my vote. (81%)
    • Yes. Anxious to hear from both candidates (19%)

    Total Voters: 27

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