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Friday, January 30, 2004 Page: 7A
Property owners throughout Pennsylvania must be warned that plans to
“reduce” property taxes, or abolish only the school taxes are not in their
long-term best interests.
Why is it that homeowners are always being discriminated against when taxes
are raised? This type of taxation is unjustified and must be stopped with the
S.T.O.P. bills. Whatever amount our taxes might be reduced will quickly be
offset by increases later. We have been fooled by such schemes in the past
under the guise of property tax reform. Let us not be fooled again!
Likewise, the abolishment of just the school tax means every property is
still subject to assessment and reassessment. And, with that comes invasion of
our properties by assessors, hearings, and related aggravations.
Since the abolishment of school taxes alone would mean the assessment
mechanism would remain in place, it is not beyond the real of possibility that
the county and municipal taxes could escalate, and someday in the future, the
school property tax would return. After all, abolishment of school taxes done
by one legislature, could easily be undone by another.
The S.T.O.P. (Stop Taxing Our Properties) legislation, SB 717-718 and HB
1572-1573 calls for the total abolishment of all property taxes on homesteads
and farmsteads. And, since this plan includes enactment of a constitutional
amendment to abolish the taxes – which will be voted on by the citizens – the
only way the property taxes on homesteads and farmsteads could ever be revived
is through another constitutional amendment which also requires voter
approval.
A bi-partisan group of 51 legislators are supporting the S.T.O.P.
legislation. For this project to succeed, contacts and support are needed in
every county in the state. Readers of this letter are urged to contact friends
and relatives in other parts of the state to become involved in this
tax-abolishment battle. We can change history here, folks.
For more information, write to S.T.O.P. care of TREC, P.O. Box 278,
Elderton, PA 15736. Copies of the legislation, petitions and other information
is available at www.grandoldusa.com.
John Czekanski
Ford City