Lawmakers discuss property tax plan at C-M town hall
CANONSBURG – From the podium at the front of a dim auditorium, Sen. Guy Reschenthaler warned the few dozen people scattered throughout the room that a plan to replace school property taxes with increased sales and income taxes would amount to sending their money to the state capital and then put it “on an eastbound train to Philadelphia.”
“It’s going to shift control away from our local governments, our local school boards, and it’s going to put all the control to Harrisburg,” said the Republican from Jefferson Hills.
“We don’t want to turn the General Assembly into a large school board.”
Reschenthaler was among the speakers at Canon-McMillan High School Monday during a town hall meant to give local residents a chance to learn about the proposal, dubbed the Property Tax Independence Act.
Sen. David Argall, R-Schuylkill, said in a recent memo he planned to reintroduce the legislation in a bill similar to the one he floated in 2015. That proposal failed in a 25-24 vote.
Not everyone in attendance agreed with Reschenthaler’s predictions.
Mark Dodson, 56, of Collier, was passing out literature from the Pennsylvania Taxpayers Cyber Coalition – a group that’s been among the proposal’s staunchest proponents – before the meeting started. He said the plan would give voters more of a say.
“This system will be fair to everybody,” he said, standing outside the auditorium. “It’s a broad system. Everybody’s going to pay for it, not just the property owners.”
In his previous bill, Argall proposed new taxes to generate revenue that would be distributed to school districts. His plan called for raising the personal income tax from 3.07 percent to 4.95 percent, increasing the state sales tax from 6 to 7 percent and expanding it to include funeral services and other types of purchases not currently taxed.
Districts seeking to spend more than their state allotment would have to get permission from voters to raise the income tax beyond the state level.
Districts would be able to keep collecting a portion of property taxes to pay off debt that was on their books as of Dec. 31.
The Monday event also included remarks from Sen. Camera Bartolotta, R-Carroll, and representatives from Pennsylvania Association of School Business Officials.
Citing figures from the state Independent Fiscal Office, Hannah Barrick, director of advocacy at PASBO, said businesses statewide would pay about $2 billion less under the proposal, leaving individual taxpayers to foot a larger portion of education costs.
PASBO cautioned Argall’s proposal – by allocating districts the equivalent of the money they generate through property taxes now – would cement disparties in per-pupil spending between affluent and poorer districts.
Reschenthaler advocated for a measure that would enroll public employees in a 401(k)-style plan instead of a traditional pension plan to control the pension debt driving much of the increase in education costs.
Dodson said Argall’s plan might force officials’ hands to cut pension costs because districts will no longer be able to increase property taxes to keep up.
“It’s going to push the General Assembly to do something about the pension (debt) more than hearsay,” he said.