Berks County school board stands with taxpayers

David Baldinger of the Pennsylvania Taxpayers Cyber Coalition informs me that the Governor Mifflin School Board (just outside of Reading) in Berks County has passed a resolution condemning Act 1, the tax shift scheme cooked up by Gov. Ed Rendell and the Pennsylvania Legislature last year.

The resolution is similar to one approved in December by the Pennsbury School Board in Bucks County, according to Baldinger.

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.

The PTCC (and the Pennsylvania Coalition of Taxpayer Associations) are asking voters to reject all Act 1 tax shift referendums on the May 15 ballot.

For more information about the growing taxpayer movement in Pennsylvania, go to http://www.ptcc.us/

Letters protesting Act 1 are starting to come in to The Mercury and its sister newspapers. See my previous post about the campaign to repeal Act 1 spearheaded by several area newspapers.

Here is the text of the Governor Mifflin resolution:

RESOLUTION URGING REPEAL OF ACT 1
AND ENACTMENT OF TRUE PROPERTY TAX REFORM

FEBRUARY 19, 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 Governor Mifflin Board of School Directors, STRONGLY URGES that the Legislature immediately repeal Act 1, and be it further

RESOLVED, that the undersigned Governor Mifflin School Directors STRONGLY URGE the Legislature IMMEDIATELY begin working on true property tax reform.


Board members signing the resolution: Joy Buchanan, Pam Cala,
Ronald Dunkelberger Jr., Heather Kendall, Jill Koestel, Gayle Pretz,
Kimberly Siegel, James Ulrich, Brent Worley