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| Planet Election Guide: <b>Property</b> <b>tax</b> hike Posted: 02 Apr 2010 07:27 AM PDT Dear Reader - We wish to keep our comments section as open and unfettered a forum as possible.
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| Bradford to host meeting Thursday on <b>property</b> <b>tax</b> Posted: 02 Apr 2010 06:58 AM PDT By Brendan Purves
Associate Editor With tax day on its way State Representative Matt Bradford, D-70 district, wants taxpayers to talk about everyone's favorite kind of tax – the property tax.
Bradford will be hosting a property tax town hall meeting Thursday, April 1 at the Skippack Township Building to discuss the issue of increasing property taxes, and to start a discussion that will get all of the key players involved in creating a solution to this growing problem.
"I want to start a real dialogue about how the commonwealth can fix [property taxes]," Bradford said.
When the economy dipped and home values dropped in 2008, school districts were forced to increase millage rates to compensate for the drop in assessed value, Bradford said. Because of this, seniors and first time homebuyers have been finding it difficult to pay the tax bills being levied for homeowners.
"It's particularly harsh on seniors and those on fixed incomes," Bradford said. "It keeps young families from buying their first homes."
According to Bradford's Web site the state needs to take some of this burden away from the taxpayers by helping to fund the school districts that have been forced into increasing property taxes for residents.
To help begin to work on a plan to solve this problem Bradford will be bringing in experts and representatives from different cross sections of the community including the a representative Pennsylvania School Boards Association, Gov. Ed Rendell's head of educational policy, the head of the Commonwealth Foundation, local school board members and board members and supervisors from local municipalities.
"If you are going to get serious about it, you're going to have to get buy-ins from all parts of the community," Bradford said about bringing leaders together at the Thursday town hall meeting.
In addition to key players in government, Bradford is hopeful that taxpayers from all across the 70th district show up to voice their opinion on the issue.
Bradford believes that it is important to have residents from all across the district because the district stretches from urban areas like Norristown into the suburbs and then into more rural parts of Montgomery County like Lower Salford Township.
"I think that my district is really unique in the conversation because of its diversity," Bradford said.
Once all of the parties come together, Bradford's goal is to work towards getting a consensus opinion on the issue, at which point the hard work in Harrisburg will begin for himself and the other state representatives.
"It's going to be a heavy lift," Bradford said about effecting real property tax change in Pennsylvania.
Although this could be a tough road to walk, Bradford is committed to seeing this issue through, and does not want it to be an election year stance.
"I don't just want to talk about it during election season," Bradford said.
The situation may be grave for some of Bradford's 70th district constituency, but he is hopeful that through an open dialogue of ideas and solutions, the state will be able to achieve property tax reform so that all Pennsylvanians will have the option of home ownership.
"With great adversity," Bradford said. "There can be great opportunity."
The town hall meeting will be Thursday, April 1 from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Skippack Municipal Building, 4089 Heckler Rd., Skippack.
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| Bradford hosts <b>property</b> <b>tax</b> meeting Posted: 02 Apr 2010 06:01 AM PDT By DAVID HARE 
MARK C. PSORAS/THE REPORTER State Rep. Matt Bradford, D-70th, addresses the audience gathered for a town hall meeting on property taxes at the Skippack Township Building on Thursday. SKIPPACK — A property tax town hall meeting held on a holy week seemed appropriate, according to state Rep. Matt Bradford.
"When you talk about property tax relief you have to talk about property tax reform," Bradford said Thursday at the Skippack Township building, where he hosted the meeting. "We're going to need a miracle to get it done."
Bradford, D-70th, said the debate in Harrisburg on using property taxes as a source of public education funding has been heated. He likened it to the current conflagration over nationalized health care.
Almost everyone can agree on the importance of funding public education; how local and state governments go about doing it is another matter.
Joining Bradford was a panel of state and local representatives.
Tim Allwein of the state School Boards Association perhaps best summed up at least one of the sticking points.
"If you reduce or eliminate the property tax you have to replace it with something," Allwein said. "The debate is, what are you going to replace it with? Whose ox are we going to gore?"
According to Allwein, the SBA is opposed to outright eliminating property tax, but supports reductions for those such as senior citizens living on fixed incomes.
"The only way you'll get comprehensive tax reform is by increasing state funding," he said, adding that the "ideal" split between state and local sources would be 60-40.
The current split is about 40-60, according to Bradford.
But the state's contribution is on the rise thanks to Gov. Ed Rendell.
Both Bradford and Allwein lauded Rendell who recently proposed a 7 percent hike in basic education funding.
"(Rendell's) legacy issue will be education," Bradford said.
Offering a different perspective was Matthew Brouillette, president of the Commonwealth Foundation for Public Policy Alternatives.
Bradford described the foundation as "a conservative think tank."
When it comes to education, Pennsylvania has been "spending money poorly," according to Brouillette.
"We are in the top 10 in per-people spending in the nation. We're tops in teachers' salaries," he said. "But in academic performance we're not doing so hot."
The problem, according to Brouillette, isn't about revenue, but spending.
"This notion of put more money in and get better results is false," he said.
According to Brouillette, one way school districts could save money is by handing over some services, such as food and busing, to the private sector.
"Why do we need to run fleets of buses?" he said. "By partnering with the private sector school districts can off load a lot of these costs."
Beth Olanoff, director of policy with the state Department of Education, said one reason the property tax has been used to fund public education is because it's a stable tax.
"Another is because it's entrenched in the system," she said.
Funding education is more important than ever, as "the 21st century is a different place than the 20th century," Olanoff said.
Today, she said, 80 percent of high school students need to graduate with "college or career ready skills."
"Other countries are not waiting around for us to get our act together," she said. "Other countries are eating our lunch." Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
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