Pennsylvania takes away voter say on property tax hikes

The state of Pennsylvania giveth, the state of Pennsylvania taketh away.

Pennsylvanians will wake up Tuesday to this headline in their morning newspapers: "Pennsylvania exempts 102 school districts from tax-hike cap"

One of the selling points of Act 1, signed into law June 2006 by Gov. Ed Rendell, was a cap on property tax increases by Pennsylvania school districts. The provision was intended to limit tax hikes to the level of inflation.

Just one tiny problem with the so-called cap. School districts can apply to the Pennsylvania Department of Education for exception from the law. That means voters in the 102 "exempted" school districts won't get a way about property tax increases for the 2008-09 school years, as Gov. Rendell and the members of the Legislature who supported Act 1 promised.

Referendum exceptions were granted to 102 of Pennsylvania's 501 school districts this year. That means school districts will not have to ask voter permission on April 22 to raise property taxes above the inflationary rate.

Look on the bright side. Last year, 210 school districts applied for the exemptions and the state granted all 210 requests.

This year, the bureaucrats in the Department of Education are getting tough. They rejected 4 of the 106 applications.

As if you needed another reason to vote out incumbent Pennsylvania lawmakers, most of them supported Act 1 in 2006. It was an obvious ploy to fool voters into thinking the Legislature had addressed property taxes. Has anyone's school taxes gone down in the past two years?

The Associated Press released a list Monday of school districts that have received state's permission to raise property taxes above an inflationary index.

Here are the districts in Berks, Chester and Montgomery counties granted permission by the state to raise taxes above the inflation cap:

BERKS COUNTY
Exeter Township
Fleetwood Area
Governor Mifflin
Kutztown Area
Schuylkill Valley
Tulpehocken Area
Twin Valley
Wilson
Wyomissing Area

CHESTER COUNTY
Kennett Consolidated
Octorara Area
Oxford Area
Phoenixville Area
Unionville-Chadds Ford
West Chester Area

MONTGOMERY COUNTY
Cheltenham Township
Lower Merion
Lower Moreland Township
Norristown Area
North Penn
Perkiomen Valley
Springfield Township
Spring-Ford Area
Upper Dublin
Upper Moreland Township
Upper Perkiomen

For a list of Berks, Chester, Montgomery lawmakers who supported Act 1, check out this post, "The people who brought you Act 1"

Capitol Punmanship provides a list of Lancaster County school districts that received exemption from the cap.

To see if your school district is exempt from the cap, check out the Pennsylvania Department of Education's Web site.