• Moving forward with school property tax elimination
• Senate Bill 76 more favorable than budget plan
• Fair education funding through school property tax elimination?

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Moving forward with school property tax elimination

With the recent 25-24 Senate vote against legislation to completely eliminate the school property tax – a tax that has placed the American Dream of homeownership on rocky grounds and burdened residents who experience firsthand, the negative impact this tax has placed on their everyday lives, it is clear that an immediate plan of action is both warranted and necessary.

As many of you already know, school property tax elimination has been, and continues to be, my main goal.

Senator Folmer, a co-sponsor of Senate Bill 76, the Property Tax Independence Act, recently wrote a column that highlights the importance of eliminating the school property tax by outlining the key facts and findings of the bill, as well as noting the downfalls of previous local tax reform initiatives.

Read Senator Folmer’s column here.

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Senate Bill 76 more favorable than budget plan

With property tax reform taking the forefront of discussion in the legislature, one question that is important to raise is: How does school property tax elimination in Senate Bill 76 compare with the one proposed in the most recent budget plan?

Lehighvalleylive.com recently conducted a poll asking citizens to weigh in on whether they supported a budget compromise consisting of an increase in the sales tax and an increase in school property tax rebates, or Senate Bill 76 which would permanently eliminate school property taxes altogether through an increase of sales and income taxes.

According to the results of the poll as of Dec. 3, 2015, 83.55 percent of participants supported the approval of Senate Bill 76, while 11.64 percent of participants supported the governor and legislature working on a budget compromise entailing property tax rebates.

Read more about the poll here.

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Fair education funding through school property tax elimination?

Slate Magazine recently published an article regarding Pennsylvania’s struggle to equitably fund our public schools and the debate about whether school property tax elimination has the potential to provide the much-needed solution to this ongoing problem.

Read the article here.