Proposed Changes in Property Tax

[Sal]

This was forwarded to me and I placed it here for reference and comments.

    Hi guys.  I was talking with my brother this weekend.  He lives off of Shady Lane in the Abington School District.  He was telling me about a meeting he attended with the school board to discuss a referendum that will be placed on the ballots in the Primaries in May.  He said that this will be on every ballot, regardless of location or school district. The referendum is about the school taxes we all pay and the Governor’s new proposed plan of how to figure them out.  This is not to be confused with the county taxes.  All of our properties will be reassessed in the near future for the new county tax rates.  But this referendum is about something completely different.  It's for your school taxes...the big one that costs us all the most every year.

    If you already know about this, then don't read any further.

    But I had never heard about it.  We have seen nothing in the paper
or were notified in our school district.  I was shocked and horrified at the new plan and now understand that it's critical I vote in this May's primary to avoid this referendum being enacted.

    Currently, your school taxes were based upon milleage, which is based upon your property's assessed value.  Govenor Rendell is proposing to change that.  He wants our school taxes to be based upon your amount of EARNED INCOME, tying it forever to your income levels.  It won't make any difference what your property is worth, but how much money you earn. The more you earn, the more you pay.  If you get a 5% raise, the government gets a 5% raise in your tax amount.

    The only people who will benefit from this plan are the people with little or no earned income.  In this area, that's attractive to seniors who live off Social Security and have no earned income.  They will not pay much, if anything.  The people who are working and earning money will pay all of the taxes for those who do not.

    My brother asked a question of the president of the school board about how long it would take before the state would start to make a profit on this new plan.  Her answer was about 2.7 years.  At that point, the state will start making a profit on our tax money and would
then have a new source of capital for them to use elsewhere.  My brother then asked about the fairness of the working class paying taxes for everyone else, and the president remarked, "If you ask me off the record, outside this meeting, I will tell you that this plan stinks.  But I can't say that in this room officially, because we as a school district are considered "revenue neutral."

    My brother has a normal sized home in the Abingtons and he's already paying $3,500/year in taxes.  They had a formula of how this all works at the meeting and if this new plan takes effect, his school tax will increase another $2,200/year.  That's almost $200 extra every month.

    The kicker is that it won't be explained or stated that way on the ballot.  There will be some mention of a tax rebate, a really non-descript way of asking people if they'd like a tax rebate.  Who won't say yes?  Everyone would like a rebate or decrease in their taxes.
They also purposely put it on a ballot of an unimportant primary.  There are no big elections and a lot of people might skip voting altogether. They are counting on that.  They are counting on the fact that seniors will make up the majority of the voters and seniors want tax rebates.  They will stand to benefit from this.  Without the proper information or notification of what this new plan is or how it really works, most working class stiffs like you and I would be completely unaware.

    This is going to run school district by school district.  Each in
their own voting district will get a chance to approve or vote down this  plan.  Lakeland may approve and our taxes will go through the roof and Abington may not.  But each of your school districts are supposed to have this on their ballots in May, so please vote and have your voice be heard.  And send this to as many people as you feel necessary, so we all can may the best and most informed decisions possible.