Posted on 03/13/2025 11:02:03 PM PDT by Libloather
As Tax Day nears, fiscally conservative leaders in several states are pushing to abolish property taxes, with one Pennsylvania lawmaker arguing that homeowners shouldn’t have to "pay rent" to the government.
That lawmaker, state Rep. Russ Diamond, R-Lebanon, spoke to Fox News Digital on Thursday ahead of his latest effort to end the collection of such taxes in the Keystone State.
Diamond will put forward a resolution — titled HB 900 — which Fox News Digital learned exclusively will be filed imminently. The document is a draft constitutional amendment he hopes will go to the voters on Election Day, and not a typical piece of legislation requiring gubernatorial approval.
Pennsylvania Republicans previously utilized the constitutional amendment process to accelerate the rollback of COVID-19 lockdowns imposed by then-Gov. Tom Wolf and then-health secretary Rachel Levine — by placing the amendment directly before voters on Election Day.
"Property taxes are an issue that is not exactly partisan, because in some areas, it’s more of a big deal than in others," Diamond said, citing varying relationships between taxes and school district funding.
Lebanon, he said, is kind of "middle-of-the-road," but that just to the east in Allentown and Mount Pocono, property taxes are a "big deal."
"For me, the ‘big deal’ is that I want people to own their homes and not have to rent from the government, all across Pennsylvania," he said.
In a recent post on his Substack, Diamond quipped that every time the topic comes up, "folks get all twisted into knots over how we’re going to pay for the things those taxes currently pay for — frankly, they’re missing the point."
"Boiled down to its very essence, fulfilling the promise of personal liberty is impossible if you can’t actually own a piece of real property," he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxbusiness.com ...
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I am for not having property taxes; however, someone else here pointed out that then we would have no way to manage abandoned property. I think this is a good point but that we need to figure out a way around it rather than letting it keep us from doing the right thing.
Owning property and making money are good actions and should not be taxed!
I don’t like taxes.
Being in PA I can see a reason for that statement. Especially the way votes were handled in Philadelphia in 2020. Kinda like taxation without representation. I recall an event like that causing Indians to throw English Tea in a harbor somewhere. Regards
I live within single digit miles from the PA border. My property taxes are nearly 8 grand a year on a less than 300K house. If PA dropped property taxes my house would become nearly impossible to sell as everyone would be heading over the line. Meanwhile PA property values would rocket through the roof.
NY is too stupid to realize that their boarder towns would become wastelands of abandoned unsellable properties.
Property taxes are evil, you can never really “own” property as long as there are onerous taxes on it.
It should be routine to auction off abandoned property. My concern about no taxes on property is that favour’s Blackrock and other companies greatly.
Prop 13 in California was neutron bomb. Saved buildings but killed people. It was big.
When you buy a tv you don’t pay taxes for the privilege to use it. A house should be treated the same but the left knows it’s easier to control people that way. With Trump in charge of the feds these ideas will encroach down to the local level.
One of the arguments for property taxes is that if you own property in the neighborhood then you should help pay for the local sidewalks, parks, schools, police, fire etc. The counter-argument is that the funding for those public goods can come from other taxes/ permits/ sources, e.g., income tax, sales tax, gasoline taxes, tobacco taxes, alcohol taxes, liquor licenses, lottery, etc.). Bottom line... pick your poison.
I’m in Pennsylvania. So many lose their homes to school/property taxes every year. The fight has been going on for years. Time to end taxes on homes!
Property taxes are the most onerous of taxes...we are all slaves when they can charge you for your own dearly paid for home,
Agree! You never really own your home!
From what I’ve read on realtor.com property taxes in Pennsylvania are rather high - over 2%.
Big money is involved.
Where is the replacement income going to come from?
I have proposed making property tax based on the square root of the square footage.
A 2,500 square foot house would pay 1.25 times the property tax of a 1,600 square foot house.
“My property taxes are nearly 8 grand a year on a less than 300K house.”
That would basically eat up most of the Social Security I hope to get in a few years.
Heck when the “dissolve your village” frenzy started by Cuomo went into action the HOMEOWNERS are now responsible for the sidewalks, trash disposal and water/sewer lines practically up to the treatment plant itself. Yet assessments double and so do the property taxes, insurance, utilities.
In many areas others ho dont pay any real estatw taxes (apartments, renters) live in these neighborhoods and enjoy the benefits. Taxes as you mentioned would be paid by everyone.
That said owners either own the property, or they are serfs renting from the government. Tax consumption, charge tolls for highways, etc. Don’t tax my house/property I spent a lifetime working for with my taxed income, and make retirement less attainable and/or force my eviction in old age b/c a tax assessment means I can no longer afford to pay rent to the gov’t on property I allegedly own.
#TaxationIsSlavery
Property tax is merely another kind of transgenerational slavery like “The National Debt” which is the worst kind of tax as politicians fundamentally bind/enslave future generations’ production/labor/earnings/property to a tax “debt” NOT of the citizen’s own choosing.
From Econ 101: you get MORE of what you subsidize, and LESS of what you tax.
From psychiatry’s definitions: Stockholm syndrome - “Taxation is the price we pay to live in a civilized society.“
They should allow individuals to own property tax free and keep the tax on corporations.
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