March 26, 2007
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It's Time to Eliminate School Property Taxes
By Senator Mike "Citizen Mike" Folmer

On May 15th, voters throttled Act 1, the Governor's ballyhooed plan to fulfill his promise to reduce property taxes.  Just seven of Pennsylvania's 501 school districts opted into the "Taxpayer Relief Act", which shifts some of the burden of paying for public education away from property taxes to the earned income tax.

Act 1 followed two other attempts to reduce property taxes.  Act 50 of 1998, which would also have relied upon the earned income tax in place of property taxes, saw only four school districts opting to participate.  Act 72 of 2004, passed in conjunction with the Governor's gambling initiative, was approved by 118 school districts; none have seen any property tax relief.

On three different occasions, the people of Pennsylvania have sent a clear message:  "Get serious about school property taxes."  I agree:  it's time to eliminate – not reduce – school property taxes.

To me, the first step in this process is getting a handle on education spending.  Otherwise, the result will simply be shifting from one tax to another.  That's not tax reform.

To control spending, we need to stop passing unfunded mandates onto our school districts.  At the same time, we need to keep districts from spending money faster than the concurrent rates of inflation and population growth – unless the taxpayers, by majority vote, approve higher spending for extenuating circumstances.

There are a number of plans currently before the General Assembly that attempt to eliminate school property taxes.  Representative Sam Rohrer (R – Berks) has a plan that would eliminate school property taxes by relying upon an expanded Sales Tax.  Senator Jeffrey Piccola (R – Dauphin) has a similar plan, which I have cosponsored, that would change how we pay for public education.  Various other plans would attack the burdens of school property taxes by allowing individual school districts to decide, via local referendum, which tax or mix of taxes would be used to pay for public education. 

The bottom line is this:  we must make serious, systemic reform in how much we pay for public education.  Senior citizens, families, farmers, and others are struggling to meet the ever continuing burdens of property taxes.  This burden needs to be lifted. 

I will continue to push for controlling spending, eliminating school property taxes, and finding ways to ensure that our public education system fulfills the mandate of our State Constitution, which calls for "the maintenance and support of a thorough and efficient system of public education to serve the needs of the Commonwealth." 

The existing system is neither thorough nor efficient.