Posted on 10/17/2005 9:29:07 AM PDT by Sub-Driver
Property-tax plan: Levy on toilet paper
By Angela Couloumbis
Inquirer Staff Writer
To ease the pain of skyrocketing property-tax bills, Pennsylvania lawmakers could soon start hitting below the belt.
Tampons, toilet paper, diapers, baby wipes - all would be subject to a new state sales tax under one plan that will be considered during the legislature's special session on property-tax reform, which resumes today.
Gov. Rendell called the special session last month to push legislators into helping him fix his signature property-tax-relief plan, which was roundly rejected by school districts across the state. Known as Act 72 and signed into law last year, it would use future gambling revenue from slots parlors to wean school districts off property taxes.
But since Rendell first announced the special session, dozens of lawmakers have come forth with tax-relief ideas of their own that they believe should usurp - or, at least, rival - the need to fix Act 72.
Some have generated more buzz than others. What, if anything, ends up with enough support to make it through the legislature is anyone's guess, legislative officials say.
"Right now, there are about half-a-dozen major plans, each with its own set of supporters," said Erik Arneson, chief of staff to Senate Majority Leader David J. Brightbill (R., Lebanon). "It is definitely too early to guess what the final outcome is going to be."
Still, a handful of plans has provoked the most discussion, including one pushed by a group of conservative House legislators called the Commonwealth Caucus.
(Excerpt) Read more at kentucky.com ...
this will be the biggest mistake if they swap property taxes for an increase in the Sales Tax and expansion of the sales tax base.
So they add a new tax??
Oh yea ... that makes sense
In New Jersey, for instance, when then-Gov. Jim Florio in 1990 expanded the sales tax to include toilet paper, among other things, thousands of angry citizens mailed toilet paper to the governor and legislators in protest. And some of it had been used.
Tax relief by tax hike. Now THAT makes sense. NOT. They tried taxing toilet paper, diapers, tampons etc years ago and the voters of PA were MAD. Needless to say, it had a short shelf life in PA politics. I hope the same thing happens again.
Here's a crazy thought for the PA Lawmakers
STOP WASTING OUR MONEY and that will lower taxes
I guess next time I'm there I'll take a second piece of baggage. In: full of toilet paper; Out: full of lard-cooked potato chips and birch beer.
Jim Florio brought the wrath of an entire state down on his head.
Instead of ridiculing the plan because it currently expands the Sales Tax to include toilet paper, etc. wouldn't it be more productive to find a way to make it work? No, these days we just sit around carping and complaining. It's so much easier than rolling up our sleeves and getting a problem solved.
I'm really sick of tax and spend Rendell and the Democrats in Pittsburgh and the state of PA. They never met a tax they didn't like.
I think the republicans in Pennsylvania and in the Congress forgot why they were put there. I think they need a few losses to remind them.
Flush twice, it’s a long way to Harrisburg.
Cut back on the union vote-generated, make-work projects which are designed to generate payola for PA officials as well as appease the unions and forget taxing necessary paper products will fix it. The odds of such a thing being CONSIDERED are slim to none.
If considering such things are slim to none then propose something else. If you picked 250 names at random off the voter registration list in Pa. and put them in the Legislature for one term we would have Property Tax reform within a year. It really isn't rocket science...
Florio free in 93!
I worked for state government during that period (I lost my first state job as part of the lay-offs that accompanied the sales tax repeal after the Republicans took the State House in 1991 -- I voted Republican then and would do it again). At one point, you could drive into the parking lot behind the State House past cars with "Dump Florio" bumper stickers.
If an individual's taxes were based on how much government services were consumed by that individual, then there would wouldn't be this constant evasion.
On the one hand, you have property owners paying for the education of other's children. Owning property has nothing to do with how much school services you consume. If anything, home owners consume much less. They try to fight back by increasing a tax on those products used by families, like diapers.
It's really a silly game.
well ... under Fast Eddie ... PA is going down the _______
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