Newspaper: Rendell turns back on property owners

More fallout from Gov. Ed Rendell's veto of legislation that would protect Pennsylvania homeowners from spot tax re-assessments by school districts and counties.

"Lost in the recent holiday weekend and the rush to pass as much legislation as possible before the Legislature took its summer recess were three bills that appeared to represent good news for Pennsylvania residents," the Reading Eagle writes in an editorial published today.

Among those bills was legislation that "would have closed a legal loophole that permitted a taxing body such as a school district or municipality to appeal some assessments on properties after the properties have been sold, resulting in dramatically higher tax obligations for the new property owners," the newspaper says.

Rendell vetoed the bills saying he wanted to see a major change in state law that would force counties to reassess real estate more frequently, according to the newspaper.

From the editorial:

We can appreciate the governor's call for more frequent countywide reassessments. They would make taxing much more equitable. Indeed, we suggested the same thing shortly after the story about Lammers and Buchman was published.

But in the meantime, this would have been a good stop-gap measure to prevent spot assessments, which are supposed to be illegal in Pennsylvania, from coming through the back door.

As I've said before, Rendell is no friend of the taxpayer.

Read the full editorial at the newspaper's Web site.