Fw:Resolution to Condemn Act 1
Diane
05 April 2007
Dear Friends,
Whew!
There have been quite a few rapid-fire developments since the last PTCC update. Consequently, this update may be a bit long. I apologize, but please bear with me.
In the last update I told you about three courageous school boards that signed a resolution that condemns Act 1, calls for its repeal, and demands legislation for true property tax reform. These resolutions were sent to the legislature and to the Governor.
As of this writing the count is now TWELVE school boards: Antietam (Berks), Boyertown (Berks/Montgomery), Bristol Township (Bucks), Centennial (Bucks), Central Bucks (Bucks – The largest district in the state subject to Act 1 provisions), Coatesville (Chester), Conrad Weiser (Berks), Governor Mifflin (Berks), Pennsbury (Bucks), South Williamsport (Lycoming), Tunkhannock (Wyoming), Wyomissing (Berks). HOORAY!
In addition, one of the approving school districts' administrators sent the resolution to all school districts in the state in an effort to have many more boards approve this resolution. I'd like to extend my sincere thanks to her for this thoughtful work.
After the announcement of the eleventh district to approve the resolution, Tony Phyrillas of the Pottstown Mercury had this to say in his blog:
"If your school district isn't on the list, find out why your school board members aren't on your side. This is a good time to get school boards to stand up for you because hundreds of school board members are seeking re-election on May 15."
Good thoughts, Tony.
Please attend your school board meetings or call a school board member in your district and encourage them to approve this resolution. Act 1 MUST be shown as a fraud from as many sources as possible so that we can convince the Legislature that Act 1 is UNACCEPTABLE!
If you know of any school districts in your area that have approved the resolution, please let me know so we can keep an accurate count. Drop me a line at patax...@gmail.com .
The text of the resolution and other information about it are in the last PTCC update available here.
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Great publicity about the anti-Act 1 movement including one FRONT PAGE!
The Act 1 repeal campaign is picking up steam as it receives increasing publicity in newspapers across the state.
On March 21, an Act 1 piece featuring the PTCC was published on the FRONT PAGE of the Reading Eagle . Click here to read the article. The full text of the address by the PTCC to the Lehigh Valley Agricultural Summit that was mentioned in the article is available here .
And on March 28, the Eagle published this article. Click here.
The Bucks County Intelligencer was active, too. Read their articles here and here (this one has good Q&A).
The Towanda Daily and Sunday Review covered the Act 1 repeal activities of PCTA member Bradford County Concerned Citizens here .
Wes Skillings of the Wyalusing Rocket-Courier bashed Act 1 in three excellent articles here, here, and here.
And this story appeared in the Johnstown Tribune-Democrat. Click here.
Act 1 opposition is building rapidly as more concerned taxpayers and the media become aware of the burden that this fraudulent law imposes on Pennsylvania taxpayers. The Act 1 referendum MUST be defeated at the polls on May 15 and the Legislature MUST begin work on real property tax reform!
If you see negative Act 1 articles in your newspaper, please send the information to patax...@gmail.com.
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Letter writing campaign has great response
The anti-Act 1 letter writing campaign sponsored by the Pottstown Mercury and the Norristown Times Herald is generating some very good letters from concerned taxpayers.
An excellent article in the Mercury about the campaign that mentions the efforts of the PTCC and includes some very pointed taxpayer quotes is here .
It's not too late to join in this campaign. You can e-mail your Act 1 opposition letters to the Pottstown Mercury at nma...@pottsmerc.com or to the Norristown Times Herald at shu...@timesherald.com.
PLEASE join this excellent campaign to repeal the worthless Act 1 property tax "relief" scheme. For more information, the original PTCC Action Item is available here .
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Act 1 tax shift opposition has Harrisburg running scared
An item appeared in the March 23 edition of the Carlisle Sentinel about Pennsylvania Department of State interference in the Act 1 ballot referendum. It relates how the Department has mandated that county election boards ignore school-board-crafted ballot questions and use the state government's wording instead.
This heavy-handed step by the Department of State is INFURIATING. It emphasizes the fear that is rampant in Harrisburg that the referendum will be defeated and provides further proof that Act 1 is unacceptable to Pennsylvania taxpayers.
Please note that the Department of State is ultimately controlled by Governor Ed Rendell, a promoter of Act 1.
An attorney for the Pennsylvania School Boards Association says state officials are tightly controlling the Act 1 ballot language because they fear the controversial referendum will fail at the polls.
On Monday, March 19, the PSBA issued a newsletter regarding Act 1 ballot language to districts across the state. In the memo by chief counsel Stuart Knade, the PSBA fired at the Department of State, particularly at its direction to county election boards on March 9, to reject referendum questions that deviate from the state-worded model.
For more of this story click here or paste the URL below into your browser.
http://www.cumberlink.com/articles/2007/04/02/perry_news/news980.txt
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More useless property tax "relief" - the sales tax scam
In his proposed 2007-2008 budget, Governor Rendell has asked for a 1% hike in the state sales tax, increasing it to 7%, to finance "property tax relief".
A Quinnipiac University poll released on March 28 found that 54% of Pennsylvania voters support this idea. Many of those who were polled obviously have not read the fine print attached to this plan.
In the first year of the sales tax increase, a paltry one-third of the $1.4 Billion of increased revenue will be allocated to property tax relief. In the second year, this increases to about 50%. The approximate projected "relief" for each homeowner will be a miniscule $180. THE REMAINDER WILL BE ALLOCATED TO THE GENERAL FUND TO BALANCE INCREASED SPENDING!
Please, Governor Rendell, tell us the whole truth. Do not promote this plan as "property tax relief" when the bulk of the revenue will go elsewhere. If this sales tax increase is needed to balance the budget, say so, and let the taxpayers decide on its value. But do not try to deceive Pennsylvania homeowners again by telling us that this plan will bring us relief. We've been fooled far too often by this kind of doubletalk.
I'm not going to comment on the general contents of the budget but only about the proposed hike in the sales tax; I want to retain the PTCC's integrity and don't want to get involved in that kind of political debate. I WILL say, however, that the sales tax proposal is just another scam being perpetrated on Pennsylvania taxpayers and must be defeated. Further, an increase in the sales tax now will lessen its viability in the future as an alternative revenue source for true property tax relief: Elimination.
If you agree, please consider submitting an on-line petition asking the Legislature to defeat this proposal. The petition has wording already completed, but you can add comments as you wish. The petition is available here , or paste this URL into your browser: http://www.papetitions.com/ .
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Act 1 Calculators
The Act 1 tax calculator on the PTCC website has seen a huge increase in use over the past four weeks. As a new feature, nineteen custom calculators have been added to reflect exact numbers for specific school districts.
Please check it out here , or paste this URL into your browser: http://mysite.verizon.net /drbsr/PTCCWeb/calculator.htm
This calculator will give you a good idea of your total school tax liability under the provisions of Act 1.
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That's it for today. Again, please accept my apology for the length of this update. I'll try to keep it shorter in the future.
As usual, your comments, concerns, and suggestions are always invited. Just send an E-mail to patax...@gmail.com and we'll give you a prompt response. And please don't forget to spread the word to your friends, family, and acquaintances! We need all the help we can get to keep this effort alive.
Thank you for all of your continuing support.
THE MOMENTUM IS BUILDING!
David Baldinger
PTCC Administrator
1 March 2007
Dear Friends,
First, I'd like to offer a sincere THANK YOU to all of you who responded to the last Action Item by writing an Act 1 opposition letter for "Operation Tax Scam" that is being supported by the Pottstown Mercury and other newspapers.
When fighting for governmental reform more support is always better, so if you haven't sent a letter for this campaign, PLEASE do so now. For more information, the original Action Item is available here .
If you're hesitant about writing your own letter, a sample letter is available here as an MS Word document – just enter your information and send it! You may use it as written or edit it in any way that you wish.
You can send your letter to the address given in the Action Item or e-mail it to the editor of the Mercury at nma...@pottsmerc.com .
Please respond to this request by the Mercury and the PTCC now. Your help will be greatly appreciated and will be a tremendous aid in our effort to reform Pennsylvania school taxation.
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Pennsylvania School Boards Speak Out Against Act 1
With the May 15 primary election approaching, the PTCC and the Pennsylvania Coalition of Taxpayer Associations will be working to defeat the election ballot's Act 1 tax shift referendum in as many Pennsylvania school districts as possible.
The worthless Act 1 tax shift scheme will impose an earned income tax (EIT) or a personal income tax (PIT) in exchange for a reduction in property taxes. This shift, if implemented in your district, will potentially benefit a very small subset of the population while imposing an even greater total school tax burden on the majority of homeowners. I touched on this in the last update and will have more on this in an upcoming newsletter. We MUST defeat this referendum to send a definitive message to the legislature that Act 1 is unacceptable!
A few Pennsylvania school districts have helped to send the message by adopting a resolution that forcefully tells the legislature that Act 1 must be repealed. As of this writing, the Governor Mifflin (Berks County ), Pennsbury ( Bucks County) and Coatesville ( Chester County) school districts have approved this resolution. Conrad Weiser ( Berks County ), Brandywine Heights (Berks County ), and Central Bucks ( Bucks County) are considering its adoption.
Tony Phyrillas, City Editor and columnist for the Pottstown Mercury, had this compliment for the Governor Mifflin board in his blog: " I applaud the members of the Governor Mifflin School Board for their courageous act and urge school boards across Pennsylvania to stand up for taxpayers in their districts. "
Thank you, Tony!
The resolution is copied below.
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RESOLUTION URGING REPEAL OF ACT I
AND ENACTMENT OF TRUE PROPERTY TAX REFORM
FEBRUARY, 2007
WHEREAS , the Pennsylvania Legislature is unable to carry out its Constitutional responsibilities and is crippling school districts and property owners through its inaction on property tax reform, and
WHEREAS , Act 1 does not provide property tax reform and
WHEREAS , the disproportionate rebates that may become available under Act 1 are distributed in a discriminatory manner by favoring property owners with low school property tax bills and are not distributed equitably within or among school districts, and in fact favor major cities over the balance of the state, and
WHEREAS , the shift to a higher local earned income tax under Act 1 in exchange for an offsetting reduction in property tax is not tax reform and does not solve inequitable funding across all school districts, and
WHEREAS , stressed school districts that have insufficient assessed value to support education also lack a sufficient earned income tax base, rendering the shift to local earned income tax useless in solving funding inequities, and
WHEREAS , Act 1 exacerbates funding inequities, as any rebates that may become available, plus a shift in local income tax, if approved, result in the greatest reductions provided to school districts whereby the tax burden is the least and the smallest reductions provided to districts where the tax burden is the greatest.
NOW THEREFORE BE IT
RESOLVED , that the (school district) Board of School Directors, STRONGLY URGES that the Legislature immediately repeal Act 1, and be it further
RESOLVED , that the undersigned (school district) School Directors STRONGLY URGE the Legislature to IMMEDIATELY begin working on true property tax reform.
(Signatures below.)
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The PTCC and the PCTA are attempting to have as many school districts as possible approve this resolution but, with 501 school districts in the state, it's a huge task. If you would like to help by presenting this resolution to your school board and urging them to adopt it, it is available as an MS Word document here . A script for a short presentation to your school board in support of the resolution is here. If you use this script, you'll need to fill in a blank with the amount of "relief" residents in your district will receive from gambling revenues. An Excel spreadsheet with the amount for each school district is available here. If you have any questions or need any help, please write to me.
Even if you don't use the script and spreadsheet, please take a look at them anyway – they're very informative.
If you present this resolution to your school board, please let me know the results so the PCTA can keep a tally of how many boards have adopted the resolution. Please send an e-mail with the information to patax...@gmail.com .
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That's it for today.
In the next update I'll have more comments and facts about the May referendum and about the Governor's proposed 1% sales tax increase that will purportedly finance property tax "relief".
I want to thank all PTCC subscribers for your continuing support of the property tax elimination issue. Together we will succeed in achieving fairness for all Pennsylvania taxpayers!
As usual, your comments, concerns, and suggestions are always invited. Just send an E-mail to patax...@gmail.com and we'll give you a prompt response. And please don't forget to spread the word to your friends, family, and acquaintances! We need all the help we can get to keep the momentum alive.
David Baldinger
PTCC Administrator
20 February 2007
Dear Friends,
With the new session of the Pennsylvania Legislature now in session, things are again heating up over property tax reform.
The goals of the PTCC and the Pennsylvania Coalition of Taxpayer Associations (PCTA) remain the same: Defeat the property tax shift referendum on the May primary ballot, repeal Act 1, and have the General Assembly enact legislation for school property tax ELIMINATION.
Newspapers across Pennsylvania are continuing to take an editorial stance on this issue, and a VERY good one was published in the February 18 edition of the Pottstown Mercury – which leads to this…
** ACTION ITEM **
Please read the editorial below; the action item is self-explanatory. Please help this effort by responding to the Mercury's request and, if possible, have your friends, neighbors, and relatives do so as well. If you wish, you can send a letter from each member of your household. Let's inundate the Legislature with letters to let them know that Act 1 is UNACCEPTABLE!
If you have comments or questions, please write to me at patax...@gmail.com.
David Baldinger
PTCC Administrator
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(Reprinted with permission of the Pottstown Mercury)
Join us in demanding legislators take another look at school tax reform
Our view
02/18/2007
First there was Act 72, and now there is Act 1, the tax reform scams of 2005 and 2006.
As area school districts are now preparing their ballot referendums to comply with Act 1, the discontent with this 2006 attempt at tax reform is becoming more evident.
The law does nothing
to reform school funding in Pennsylvania
and
serves only to take taxes out of one pocket instead of the other without
providing meaningful relief for the working homeowner.
The law has three
main parts. It attempts to limit future tax increases by subjecting districts to
a referendum on any tax increase above the inflation index and on building
projects. It distributes money earned from slot parlors to schools for property
tax reduction, and it forces districts to offer a tax-shifting referendum on May
15.
But the measure fails on all
three fronts.
The legislature has in its power many ways to
limit school spending or to help districts control spending through prevailing
wage exemptions and consolidated purchasing power. But a school district
exploding with growth cannot stop building schools or paying for additional
teachers.
Giving voters a false sense of control of spending is
irresponsible legislation.
The distribution of money from slots is a
promise yet to be realized. And it also depends on people losing money in order
for a tax break.
The tax-shifting referendum is the biggest
scam of all.
Districts are able to word their own ballot question,
basing it on whether they want to propose an increase in personal income tax or
earned income tax. They must also determine the amount of the increase, ranging
from .5 percent to 2.5 percent, for the ballot
question.
Citizens' tax study commissions -- also a requirement of Act 1
-- have been making recommendations to all school boards in recent weeks and
their reports reveal the problems with the law.
For example, in the Owen J.
Roberts School
District,
the commission recommended a 1 percent earned income tax increase. That increase
would enable the district to give a property tax reduction to all homeowners
totaling $500 the first year and $700 in all future years.
But the $700 trimmed off property taxes won't really result
in a tax savings for all taxpayers. The amount saved depends on income because
higher earners will pay more in earned income tax than they will save in
property tax.
Homeowners with a
combined income of $29,000 would see a net reduction in their taxes of $415.
Those earning $76,000 would only realize a $58 savings. Households with a
combined income of $158,000 would actually experience an $872 increase in school
taxes.
Families with two wage-earners would be hit harder, and renters
would pay more in taxes with no chance of seeing relief.
The failures of
this "reform" legislation are becoming evident throughout
Pennsylvania. In the Norristown Area School
District,
a working middle-class couple who own a home could end up paying $900 per year
in additional taxes to get $350 knocked off their property tax bill.
If that's not a scam, we don't know what it is.
As
with the pay-raise debacle in 2005, newspapers are taking the public's
frustration with Act 1 to Harrisburg with a demand that
legislators get back to work on a true solution to the problem of relying on
local property taxes to fund public schools.
We ask you to join us in
asking Gov. Ed Rendell and our state legislators to take a hard look at school
funding and craft a plan that truly reforms the system of taxation and takes the
burden off local school districts and the working-class homeowner.
They tried last year with a months-long special session on
tax reform, and the result was Act 1. Clearly, the effort failed, and lawmakers
need to try again.
If you're
opposed to Act 1, please write to: Operation Tax Scam, The Mercury, 24 N. Hanover
St. ,
Pottstown, PA 19464 . We will collect
letters sent to us as part of a campaign shared with The Times-Herald newspaper
and will forward them to legislators.
(Note: You might prefer to e-mail your letter to nma...@pottsmerc.com. – DB)
©The Mercury 2007
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Hello!
Welcome to the Pennsylvania Taxpayers Cyber Coalition (PTCC) taxpayer advocacy group and thank you for joining us. The PTCC is an associated member with the Pennsylvania Coalition of Taxpayer Associations (PCTA). The Coalition, which currently numbers 23 affiliated taxpayer advocacy groups from throughout the Commonwealth, is dedicated to the fight for equitable tax funding of our schools. We have only two goals – the repeal of Act 1, the bogus property tax rebate bill passed by the legislature in June 2006 and signed by Governor Rendell, and the total elimination of all school property and nuisance taxes. The group is nonpartisan in nature; we endorse no political party. The list of currently affiliated groups can be found here: http://www.ptcc.us.
The PTCC e-mail list is comprised of several thousand taxpayers from throughout the Commonwealth; its purpose is to be a virtual taxpayer advocacy group to reach those who have no local organization available to them. All you need to do as a member is to read the occasional updates and, hopefully, participate when we have an action item like writing to your legislator. This is an interactive list, and we want to hear your opinions; your comments, concerns, and suggestions are always welcome. You may unsubscribe at any time by sending me an email that says "unsubscribe" in the subject line.
You are encouraged to review the information about the Plan for Pennsylvania's Future , the school property tax elimination plan endorsed by the PTCC, and previous letters and action items in the PTCC archives at http://www.ptcc.us. There you'll also find the Coalition's resolutions to the Legislature and the associated press releases. Taking a look at this information and following the links will familiarize you with the list's style and philosophies and will probably answer any questions that you may have. Please note that some of the links in the archive may not work any longer because the item has been removed from the target website.
If you agree with the principles of this list, please forward this message to as many friends, relatives, and acquaintances as possible. Have them send an email to: patax...@gmail.com to join. We'd like to keep this list growing for the benefit of all Pennsylvania taxpayers and we can use your help.
Thanks for subscribing.
David Baldinger
List Administrator
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