Property taxes are killing Pennsylvania

Tom Hylton is a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer who has written about Pennsylvania communities for decades.

His latest column in The Mercury examines how how property taxes are holding one community back. It's a scenario that is repeated in hundreds of communities across Pennsylvania.

Hylton writes about Pottstown:

Each year, the Pennsylvania Department of Education compares what it calls "local tax effort" among the 501 school districts in the Commonwealth, based on the taxes levied and the community’s ability to pay (as measured by residents' income and real estate values). On this basis, the Pottstown School District has the tenth highest taxes in Pennsylvania. In other words, Pottstown School District taxes are higher than 98 percent of the school districts in the Commonwealth.

Pennsylvania, like the rest of the nation, is headed into a recession (if we're not in one already). More people will lose their jobs. Tax revenues are already falling. The chickens are coming home to roost after five years of runaway spending by the Rendell administration and uncontrolled tax increases by school boards.

Hylton isn't advocating the elimination of property taxes in his column, but he makes a convincing case that the current trend of raising taxes every year is the wrong path.

The elimination of property taxes is the only "stimulus" package that can save Pennsylvania.

That will happen only if dozens of new legislators are sent to Harrisburg in the April primary and November elections. We know where most incumbents stand -- they oppose eliminating property taxes. It's time to send more reformers to Harrisburg.

Read more about the effort to eliminate property taxes at the Pennsylvania Taxpayers Cyber Coalition Web site.