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Posted on 03/03/2015 8:55:57 PM PST by ConservativeInPA
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf's budget proposal unveiled Tuesday drastically changes education funding and represents a windfall for Harrisburg residents, said Harrisburg Mayor Eric Papenfuse.
The new governor's proposal completely wipes out school property taxes for Harrisburg homeowners. School taxes currently represent the bulk of homeowners' property taxes.
"This is news everyone in Harrisburg needs to hear," said Papenfuse, who could hardly contain his enthusiasm.
Harrisburg was among several distressed cities whose residents would get to zero out their school property taxes. Specifically, Harrisburg is in line for a 155-percent property tax reduction. That means the state would provide relief representing 155 percent of the city's current residential tax collection. The rest of the reduction would allow the lowering of millage rates for nonresidential school property taxes.
Other school districts would enjoy a sliding scale of property tax reductions with many receiving 30 to 50 percent cuts.
The property tax relief would begin in 2016-17. It could save Harrisburg property owners $26 million overall.
"This is incredibly significant for Harrisburg residents," Papenfuse said, after listening to Wolf's budget presentation. "By far, that was the highlight of the speech. This is going to have a huge impact."
Historically, Harrisburg has levied high property taxes on its residents to support the school district under the state's old funding formula. That was the main reason Papenfuse had been trying to pass a tax abatement plan, under the state's Local Economic Revitalization Tax Assistance law, to encourage investment in the city.
Papenfuse said the governor's "fundamental paradigm shift in school funding" would encourage investment in the capital city and make a tax abatement plan almost irrelevant for Harrisburg.
"We may never need to discuss a LERTA again," he said. "It was all about compensating for the school taxes. This fundamentally changes that. It's going to really empower cities and Harrisburg is one of the leading beneficiaries."
Wolf's plan also devoted $3.9 million more annually to the Harrisburg School District, which Superintendent Sybil Knight-Burney accepted with cautious optimism.
"Governor Wolf has submitted a great proposal, but nothing is certain," she said, according to a statement provided to PennLive. "It's important to review the proposed budget in its entirety. That said, we are hopeful, as this funding would greatly benefit our district and others that are facing financial hardship."
Under Wolf's proposal, Pennsylvania residents would pay more personal income tax and a higher sales tax to offset the schools' reliance on property taxes.
UPDATE: This article was updated to add a statement from Sybil Knight-Burney and to clarify what the 155-percent reduction means.
PA Ping Request please.
Reminder to donate $5 or $10 to end the Freepathon.
A massive raise in the state income tax, not one cut to the insane public unions and temporary reduction in property taxed that will rapidly increase back to where they were...
sales taxes too
Sales tax is a poor people tax. The only tax that hits them harder is the stupidty tax, the lottery.
What little I read of this, it appears to be a shell game.
I guess this is the model of what Obama could do nationwide with this idea.
Executive Order tax increases and all that.
Redistribution! The tax dollars from the 50 odd republican counties will increase to pay the way for the democratic strongholds.
As of the 2010 census, the city was 30.7% White, 52.4% Black or African American......Could be part of the problem.... too many Whites.
From each according to his abilities,to each according to his need.
Ladies and gentlemen,we have arrived.
This solves nothing. Just what are the unintended consequences? Such as a population increase of more takers, elected reps and staff changing taxable address. There is no attempt to get to the root causes of problems.
“Just what are the unintended consequences?”
You’re making a false assumption. The question is what are the intended goals. I’ll tell you one; Make property ownership outside of the cities impossible but for only the very wealthy. Invisible walls....
If you see posts of interest to Pennsylvanians, please ping me.
Thanks!
Thanks ConservativeInPA for the heads up
Three-card monte.
Please, allow me:
From each according to his civilization coefficient, to each according to his gibsmedat.
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