As I was a taxpayer in Pennsylvania for 35 years, I am well aware of the horrendous school taxes. I never remember them giving anything back though - just more increases. The school tax never, in that time, remained the same or decreased, despite adding a state income tax, local income taxes for the schools, and legalizing gambling through the lottery and horse racing.
yes, you are of course correct about the trend.
but the teachers unions aren't dumb, they know they cannot sustain the constant property tax increases at a multiple of the inflation rate - year after year after year. even the dumbest voters (the Dems), at some point, get fed up. so they use other methods to keep the wheels greased.
here on long island, you drive past public schools during the school day - the parking lot is full of luxury cars. and teachers with tenure and enough years, retire at 90% pay for their pensions. and we are talking 90% of $100K+ salaries.
"As I was a taxpayer in Pennsylvania for 35 years, I am well aware of the horrendous school taxes. I never remember them giving anything back though - just more increases. The school tax never, in that time, remained the same or decreased, despite adding a state income tax, local income taxes for the schools, and legalizing gambling through the lottery and horse racing."
I moved here to Pennsylvania a couple of years ago, and the first thing they did is double my taxes. Not everyone, mind you - just anyone who had newly moved into the area was "reassessed". When I contested this as an unfair money grab, they literally said: "we can do whatever we want to do." -- now I'm paying almost as much in taxes as I paid in New Jersey, in a house that's worth about 1/4 of what my house was worth there.
Maybe the answer IS to move out of the northeast altogether.