Free Republic

HARRISBURG -- Gov. Ed Rendell today outlined six priority bills he wants the General Assembly to act on quickly when it returns to work Sept. 26. Topping his list is action to "fix" the property-tax relief law passed last year -- principally by removing a school district's ability to "opt out" of the tax relief program, called Act 72. Other issues include increasing the minimum wage, spending $500 million on economic development, providing financial aid to National Guard personnel, requiring someone convicted of raping a child to spend at least 25 years in prison and making it harder to get...

Well, P.T Barnum's famous quote "there's a sucker born every minute" is wrong, at least about most residents of Delaware County. Most of us told Gov. Fast Eddie Rendell to take his Act 72 and shove it. We want him to come back with something that is fair, clear, understandable and doesn't fill the pockets of his political cronies. Forget about using gambling funds to finance our children's education. Outlaw public school teachers' strikes, give us school choice, school vouchers and teacher accountability and we will be able to afford to educate our kids.By the way, although Barnum is credited...

HARRISBURG, Pa. - It seemed a political masterstroke: Legalize slot machines to lure back residents flocking to casinos in neighboring states, then use the revenue to give Pennsylvania's homeowners a tax cut of historic proportions. But nearly a year after Gov. Ed Rendell got the Legislature to sign on, the tax-cut portion of the plan has gone awry. To the governor's dismay, many Pennsylvania school boards are deciding they don't want to participate in the plan - which would provide an average $330 in tax relief per household, or $1 billion in all. The first-term Democratic governor now feels snookered...

GRANTVILLE, Pa. (AP) — Gov. Ed Rendell ratcheted up the pressure on school boards to sign on to a $1 billion property-tax reduction program, saying state lawmakers might otherwise make the program mandatory. School boards, which have until the end of May to opt in, have been slow to participate. In exchange for the future slots revenues, they must raise local income taxes and seek voter approval for future property-tax increases that exceed inflation. "We may mandate it, there's so much anger in the Legislature. We may mandate it without some of the exceptions that are worked in, and that...

Frustrated that few school districts have signed up for his program for property tax cuts, Gov. Ed Rendell stopped Monday in South Scranton and asked some senior citizens for a little help. "Send them a note, get on the phone and say, 'We want our property tax relief,' " Rendell told more than 80 people gathered at the United Neighborhood Centers of Lackawanna County office on Alder Street. The stop was part of a two-day, six-stop tour by the governor to every corner of the state as he tries to rally residents behind his plan to use revenues from slot...

Area school board presidents say push from governor could help. HARRISBURG – The lure of up to $1 billion in property-tax relief from gambling revenue has not been enough to convince most of the state’s 501 school boards to participate in the controversial Homeowner Tax Relief program. As of mid-March, only four school districts, none of them local, had officially agreed opt in to the program, also known as Act 72. Now, Gov. Ed Rendell plans to use the direct approach. Some might even call it the hard sell. Rendell will reach out to the hundreds of elected school board...

School boards in Delaware County and across Pennsylvania are wrestling with whether to "opt in" to Act 72, the state's Homeowner Tax Relief Act. They have until May 30 to decide if they'll participate in the measure that provides school property tax relief to qualified homeowners in districts that choose to take part in Act 72. Once a decision is made by the deadline, a school district cannot change its mind and the public cannot overturn the board's decision. On the surface, it looks like a "no brainer." Property owners have told their school directors that they want to see...