Pennsylvanians Will Always Pay School Property Taxes

Every time a politician says they are going to save taxpayers money, hang on to your wallets. We should always ask ourselves how much more is it going to cost us this time. I don't think there ever was a scheme that didn't end up costing us more. I'm not sure I can afford their kind of savings.

In a Express-Times letter to the editor the writer said,"School property tax should be eliminated in Pennsylvania by raising the sales tax by two cents... I believe the two-cent increase would cover all school taxes needed to run our educational system."Whoa hold on their hoss. I'm not sure where people got the idea their property taxes would be eliminated entirely. I hate to burst anyone's bubble but chances are more favorable a property owner will win the lottery then see property taxes disappear. No, property taxes will never be eliminated entirely.. ever!

Here's why...
I don't have the latest numbers but "in 2012, Pennsylvania spent $26.5 billion on K-12 education.". Of that amount the state's share was 36%. Local taxes made up 53% of that amount. The remaining 11% came from federal government. Therefore at present $14.045b (53% of $26.5b) is derived from local taxes on properties


Doing The MathGov Wolf & The Democrats' Plan
Even if Democrats got everything they wanted their proposal would only raise $4.7b. That's a far cry from the $10b more needed even using the figures from 2012.

Here's how they planned to raise the $4.7b. In addition to raising sales tax to 6.6% their plan all along called for raising the state's income tax from 3.07% to 3.85. A new shale extraction tax. Throwing another buck a pack tax on cigarettes along with additional taxes on smokeless tobacco & cigars and imposing sales tax on some never before previously exempt items. All that just to get the $4.7b.

Concerning The 8% Sales Tax In The LTE
Even if legislators agreed to a 8% sales tax it still wouldn't be near enough.

As of June 1st sales taxes brought in $8.6b. Using simple math if sales tax was 2% more it still would only have raised $2.5b more. This would amount to less then $5b by the end of this year. Far short of what would still be needed to eliminate property taxes entirely.





Eight years and still counting

Yeah, good luck with that!