Posted: Tuesday, June 26, 2012 5:00 am | Updated: 6:30 am, Tue Jun 26, 2012.
Posted on June 26, 2012 by Gary Weckselblatt
Legislation in the state House to reduce property taxes for seniors 60 and older who volunteer at local schools has the support of several area lawmakers.“If you think about it, it’s really good legislation,” said state Rep. Frank Farry, R-142. “It’s not going to displace the work force. The intent is to enhance the academic environment. It moves the decision to the local level.
“You’re giving seniors struggling with property taxes a chance to help them out financially. It’s a winning proposition.”
House Bill 273, sponsored by state Rep. Dick Hess, R-78, would create the Senior Tax Reduction Incentive Volunteer Exchange Program to help seniors earn credits toward their property tax bills by volunteering at local schools.
Volunteer activities could include reading to young children, or speaking about life experiences such as military service and various careers.
Lawmakers to co-sponsor the plan include Farry, Paul Clymer, R-145, Tina Davis, D-141, Tom Murt, R-152, Bernie O’Neill, R-29, Scott Petri, R-178, Todd Stephens, R-151, and Kathy Watson, R-144.
“Our seniors have so much to offer our students,” Stephens said. “This is an innovative way to help our seniors struggling to pay rising property taxes and the students who could benefit from those seniors who have so much life experience to share.”
He called it a “win-win” for students and seniors.
Under the plan, each district would determine the hourly rate for the tax credits in exchange for mentoring and other services that enhance the students’ academic experience.
Davis, the Democrat from Bristol Township, called it a “no-brainer.” She had wanted to have hearings on House Bill 1776, the Property Tax Independence Act, which would end the school property tax, increase the state income tax and increase and expand the sales tax, but that bill has been tabled.
“I was really excited about 1776,” she said, adding that HB 273 “is at least a help for seniors.”
Watson called it “one little thing in a tool box that will help some people. Is it the final answer? No. Many times what we do is incremental.”
Similar measures have been around for a decade without passing the House. Sharon Schwartz, executive director of the House Aging and Older Adults Committee, which advanced the bill unanimously this month, said the current legislation has been improved. She worked with the Pennsylvania School Board Association to amend the bill after concerns were raised about the tax code and uniformity issues.
Several districts across the state have employed the program for years.
In Montgomery County, the Pottstown School District has a program called “Golden Sage” that reduces taxes up to $500 annually for volunteers 60 and over.
In Chester County, Downingtown and Owen J. Roberts use similar approaches. OJR calls its program “Starfish Ambassadors.” Volunteers 60 and over receive a tax rebate of up to $500. They are paid $8 an hour.
In Downingtown, the age requirement is 65.
O’Neill and Petri have also drafted a plan to help seniors with property taxes. They would use Act 1 money that reduces property taxes for all homeowners under the “homestead or farmstead exclusion” to pay for the program for seniors.
“The property tax issue is a complicated one to solve,” Farry said. “If you can’t have substantive reforms, you try and chip away at it.”
House Bill 273, sponsored by state Rep. Dick Hess, R-78, would create the Senior Tax Reduction Incentive Volunteer Exchange Program to help seniors earn credits toward their property tax bills by volunteering at local schools.
Volunteer activities could include reading to young children, or speaking about life experiences such as military service and various careers.
Lawmakers to co-sponsor the plan include Farry, Paul Clymer, R-145, Tina Davis, D-141, Tom Murt, R-152, Bernie O’Neill, R-29, Scott Petri, R-178, Todd Stephens, R-151, and Kathy Watson, R-144.
“Our seniors have so much to offer our students,” Stephens said. “This is an innovative way to help our seniors struggling to pay rising property taxes and the students who could benefit from those seniors who have so much life experience to share.”
He called it a “win-win” for students and seniors.
Under the plan, each district would determine the hourly rate for the tax credits in exchange for mentoring and other services that enhance the students’ academic experience.
Davis, the Democrat from Bristol Township, called it a “no-brainer.” She had wanted to have hearings on House Bill 1776, the Property Tax Independence Act, which would end the school property tax, increase the state income tax and increase and expand the sales tax, but that bill has been tabled.
“I was really excited about 1776,” she said, adding that HB 273 “is at least a help for seniors.”
Watson called it “one little thing in a tool box that will help some people. Is it the final answer? No. Many times what we do is incremental.”
Similar measures have been around for a decade without passing the House. Sharon Schwartz, executive director of the House Aging and Older Adults Committee, which advanced the bill unanimously this month, said the current legislation has been improved. She worked with the Pennsylvania School Board Association to amend the bill after concerns were raised about the tax code and uniformity issues.
Several districts across the state have employed the program for years.
In Montgomery County, the Pottstown School District has a program called “Golden Sage” that reduces taxes up to $500 annually for volunteers 60 and over.
In Chester County, Downingtown and Owen J. Roberts use similar approaches. OJR calls its program “Starfish Ambassadors.” Volunteers 60 and over receive a tax rebate of up to $500. They are paid $8 an hour.
In Downingtown, the age requirement is 65.
O’Neill and Petri have also drafted a plan to help seniors with property taxes. They would use Act 1 money that reduces property taxes for all homeowners under the “homestead or farmstead exclusion” to pay for the program for seniors.
“The property tax issue is a complicated one to solve,” Farry said. “If you can’t have substantive reforms, you try and chip away at it.”
22 comments:
Shouldn't they just be volunteering out of the goodness of their hearts?
LOL that's what SOC Mihok and Hellman always say.
Care to wager on which SOCers will be first in line to "volunteer" for the $500?
they actually have to like kids and be mixed with those of color so that will never fly with the SOCers who are as crooked, racist and ignorant as they come
But $500 is $500. Who says you have to really work for it, or that you can't do it when nobody's around?
Maybe we could get volunteer Hall Monitors to keep the young kids separate from the older kids.
Let's get unpaid volunteer everything.
Why do we even need a society???
While I think the idea is a good step in the right direction, from where does the lost revenue come? I haven't read the bill, so perhaps the lottery (Benefits senior citizens) will pick up the tab. Otherwise, all this will be is another tax shift.
Seniors, one of the most powerful interest groups in the USA.
I have no problem helping struggling seniors, but put a means test on this, for Pete's Sake.
Mitt Romney's 65 and I don't want him collecting $500 for reading the Cat in the Hat at Grandview.
You parents need to get into the school and take care of your kids and and leave seniors alone. We did our time and paid for you and worked with you now its time for you to do for your kids like we did. Stop making the seniors bail you out again.
OK. Will you promise to buy your own medicine and health care without my subsidies? No more AARP discounts either.
OK can you promise to raise your own kids without draining our money away
No us v. them mentionality here.
I'm 100% sure seniors helped pay for your kids to go to school.
wow people really, now we are pitting young against old? one thing I do know for sure, you youngens will be old someday (unless your time comes sooner than expected) so slow down on the bad blood between
The bad blood seemed to start here:
"You parents need to get into the school and take care of your kids and and leave seniors alone. We did our time and paid for you and worked with you now its time for you to do for your kids like we did. Stop making the seniors bail you out again."
How about having the seniors tell the children how they can keep their houses long after they can really afford them?
You know..."Well, kids,we didn't really plan too well... and if taxes go up(WHEN they go up, I mean,) we'll just take something away from your school like teachers or aides or desks or classrooms or boiler maintenance or the Principal of the Year or whatever we can because God forbid we pay a little more."
And then we can have Ron Stout volunteer to be a diversity monitor and Al Radosti can teach gun safety. Jerk Buckman can teach computer illiteracy and Bill Farrell can teach them how NOT to keep up with technology. Maybe Sharon the Hutt can run the A/V club.
"No Brainer" indeed.
Let's put aside the us versus them mentality and look at the first part of the senior whine "You parents need to get into the school and take care of your kids". I think there's a point there. It's great to see the other parents that do come out to field day, plays, school board meetings and the like, but that's a big minority of the parents out there. When I was a kid, there were a lot more parents involved.
I can agree with the last two posts in parts. However, it is unfair to compare generations and their involvement with school/children. We no longer live in a society where Dad works and Mom stays home with the kiddos. If there are two parents in the house, they both work, and if there are not two parents in the house then it just gets even more hectic. Regardless, where in this country do you not have the responsibility to pay for the education of children through taxes? It's way cheaper than the cost of incarceration, which we pay for as well.
Every generation
Blames the one before
And all of their frustrations
Come beating on your door
I know that I'm a prisoner
To all my Father held so dear
I know that I'm a hostage
To all his hopes and fears
I just wish I could have told him in the living years
Crumpled bits of paper
Filled with imperfect thoughts
Stilted conversations
I'm afraid that's all we've got
You say you just don't see it
He says it's perfect sense
You just can't get agreement
In this present tense
We all talk a different language
Talkin' in defense
Say it loud, say it clear
You can listen as well as you hear
It's too late when we die
To admit we don't see eye to eye
So we open up a quarrel
Between the present and the past
We only sacrifice the future
It's the bitterness that lasts
So Don't yield to the fortunes
You sometimes see as fate
It may have a new perspective
On a different date
And if you don't give up, and don't give in
You may just be O.K.
Say it loud, say it clear
You can listen as well as you hear
It's too late when we die
To admit we don't see eye to eye
I wasn't there that morning
When my Father passed away
I didn't get to tell him
All the things I had to say
I think I caught his spirit
Later that same year
I'm sure I heard his echo
In my baby's new born tears
I just wish I could have told him in the living years
Say it loud, say it clear
You can listen as well as you hear
It's too late when we die
To admit we don't see eye to eye
Say it loud, say it clear
Say it loud
Don't give up
Don't give in
And don't know what you can do next
"That's the way the world's going"
- Steve Worob
6/20/2012
Standin' in line marking time
Waiting for the welfare dime
'Cause they can't buy a job
The man in the silk suit hurries by
As he catches the poor old lady's eyes
Just for fun he says, 'Get a job'
That's just the way it is
Some things'll never change
That's just the way it is
Ha, but don't you believe them
Said, 'Hey little boy you can't go
Where the others go
Cause you don't look like they do'
Said, 'Hey, old man how can you stand
To think that way
Did you really think about it
Before you made the rules?'
He said, 'Son
That's just the way it is
Some things'll never change
That's just the way it is'
Ha, but don't you believe them
Ooo, yeah (instrumental)
(That's just the way it is)
(That's just the way it is)
Well, they passed a law in '64
To give those who ain't got, a little more
But it only goes so far
'Cause the law don't change another's mind
When all it sees at the hiring time
Is the line on the color bar
But who knows
That's just the way it is
Some things'll never change (right)
That's just the way it is
That's just they way it is, it is, when you're waiting.
What was Worob referring to when he said "That's the way the world's going"?
I think it was during discussions about either cutting 1st & 2nd grade art or pushing it onto the regular teachers (due to retirement of an art teacher).
The problem was that this is what happened last year with Kindergarten Specials, and it didn't really happen as promised.
If that's the way the world's going (non-cuts that really are cuts, and empty or unfullfilled promises), I don't like it.
You expect it from a lot of politicians. But you hope that your School Administrators and School Board Members aren't politicians in the classic bad sense.
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