Reps. Tina Davis and John Galloway
Two area lawmakers are among 59 co-sponsors of House Bill 1776 : Reps. Tina Davis of Bristol and John Galloway of Falls, both Democrats.
Posted: Thursday, July 25, 2013 6:05 pm | Updated: 9:10 pm, Thu Jul 25, 2013.
If the community has questions about Rep. John Galloway’s proposed Property Tax Independent Act bill that he’s pushing, he has the answers.Galloway, D-140, will host a forum at 7 p.m. Monday at Bristol Borough Hall, 250 Pond St. The state representative has received a number of inquiries about H.B. 76, which he’s sponsoring, so he’s scheduled the information session to provide residents an opportunity to learn the details of his bill, he said.“This proposal is not just another property tax relief measure,” Galloway said in a written statement, adding that once people understand the bill’s intent, they tend to get on board.
“Rather, it is about replacing an unfair and inequitable system of education funding with one that is a reflection of our 21st century economic reality.
House Bill 76 will eliminate all school property taxes across the commonwealth and will replace those taxes with funding from the personal income tax and the sales and use tax.”
Sen. Tommy Tomlinson, R-6, is scheduled to attend, according to Galloway’s office.
Additionally, Galloway has invited local officials, as well as community group leaders.
“When John contacted me I thought this was a great opportunity for people to get a first-hand explanation of the legislation from the local representatives who are sponsoring it. I have an open mind regarding the plan,” Bristol council President Ralph DiGuiseppe said in the written statement.
Galloway has the attention of Bill Pezza, chairman of the Bristol’s Economic Development Committee.
“From an economic development perspective, my specific interests rest with how it will affect Bristol. Will the change from property taxes stimulate home sales? Will the replacement sources of revenue sufficiently support our school system? How much autonomy will local governing bodies have under the proposal? It’s a complicated issue. I applaud anyone attempting to inform the public,” Pezza said in the written statement.
“Rather, it is about replacing an unfair and inequitable system of education funding with one that is a reflection of our 21st century economic reality.
House Bill 76 will eliminate all school property taxes across the commonwealth and will replace those taxes with funding from the personal income tax and the sales and use tax.”
Sen. Tommy Tomlinson, R-6, is scheduled to attend, according to Galloway’s office.
Additionally, Galloway has invited local officials, as well as community group leaders.
“When John contacted me I thought this was a great opportunity for people to get a first-hand explanation of the legislation from the local representatives who are sponsoring it. I have an open mind regarding the plan,” Bristol council President Ralph DiGuiseppe said in the written statement.
Galloway has the attention of Bill Pezza, chairman of the Bristol’s Economic Development Committee.
“From an economic development perspective, my specific interests rest with how it will affect Bristol. Will the change from property taxes stimulate home sales? Will the replacement sources of revenue sufficiently support our school system? How much autonomy will local governing bodies have under the proposal? It’s a complicated issue. I applaud anyone attempting to inform the public,” Pezza said in the written statement.
17 comments:
State Rep. John Galloway to hold town meeting in Bristol Borough on tax reform legislation
Published: Wednesday, July 24, 2013
By Elizabeth Fisher
Advance correspondent
BRISTOL BOROUGH - State Rep. John Galloway will hold a town meeting at 7 p.m. Monday night (July 29) in borough hall, 250 Pond St., on an issue that he thinks every property owner should become knowledgeable about: House Bill 76. That proposed legislation is about eliminating what Galloway calls an unfair and inequitable means of funding education and replacing it with a system that reflects the state’s economic reality.
If passed, HB 76 would eliminate all school and property taxes across the state and replace them with the Personal Income Tax and the Sales and Use Tax. Galloway is one of the sponsors of the bill.
“I’ve received a number of inquiries about the legislation and scheduled this session to give residents information about the bill," Galloway said.
The lawmaker said he hopes that elected officials from the borough and the school district, private citizens, and members of the Bristol Borough Economic Development Committee will attend so they can be informed about the proposed legislation because of the possible economic impact, should it pass.
Borough council President Ralph DiGuiseppe said he encourages residents to attend.
“This is a great opportunity for people to get a first-hand explanation of the legislation from the local representatives who are sponsoring it. I have an open mind about the plan,” DiGuiseppe said.
Economic Committee Chairman Bill Pezza said that he is anxious to hear what Galloway has to say because “there are winners and losers” in any legislation that affects the economy.
“From an economic development perspective, my specific interests rest with how it will affect Bristol Borough,” Pezza said. “Will the change from property taxes stimulate home sales? Will the replacement sources of revenue sufficiently support our school system? How much autonomy will local governing bodies have under the proposal? It’s a complicated issue. I applaud anyone attempting to inform the public.”
Galloway said he believes that HB76 is right for the people in his district, and for all of Pennsylvania.
“Once people understand the bill’s intent, they tend to get on board,” Galloway said.
How do people feel about this bill? I worry that it sounds good on the surface, but has negative consequences that aren't thought through well enough.
Here's a link to the bill. 137 pages for you to download as a PDF.
http://legiscan.com/PA/bill/HB76/2013
It is loved by Tea Baggers who are imbued with so much ignorance there's gotta be something selfish and/or fatally flawed about it.
It can't possibly raise enough money to fund the schools. Do you really pay thousands in sales taxes? And the personal income tax can't raise enough either.Smells like pandering.
Been tried before and went nowhere. More noise without any real signal.
I fear many supporters don't much care about these details as long as their property taxes go away. They'll just grab their torches and pitchforks again when the sales taxes and income taxes keep increasing or districts start instituting or increasing their own income taxes for funding shortfalls.
Wait till they start getting hit for sales tax on all kinds of things not currently taxed.
In addition to school districs, boros and counties rely on property tax for revenues too. What happens to them? Do the property taxes for them remain in place?
FAQ from the website of the Pennsylvania Taxpayers Cyber Coalition (PTCC), a advocacy group:
"Will this bill eliminate the "hold harmless" feature of the current school district funding system? If not, how do we overcome the objection that growing school districts are being short-funded?
• Under The Property Tax Independence Act, all school districts would be fully funded at their current levels.
• Because of significant variations between districts, and the phase out of property taxes and into the new sales and use tax, new funding will occur in two different ways.
Initially, all school districts will initially receive 100% funding sufficient to meet all financial obligations. Initial funding will then receive annual increases based on the increase in the Consumer Price Index (CPI), allowing school budgets to remain in step with inflation and not requiring less affluent districts to rely on the crushing burden of the school property tax to fund their schools."
This seems like a recipe for funding to individual districts getting out of whack in a hurry. Fast growing, slow growing, fast shrinking, slow shrinking, rock steady districts all get funding increases based on the CPI? If your district doesn't need that much money does it get to keep it anyway? If your district needs more funding, I guess you've got to find other methods like instituting or increasing a local income tax? Does anyone have more insight into this? I know, I know, read the 137 page bill...
Joseph Gribble: Dad, I'm sorry! I'll never smoke again.
Dale Gribble: Whoa, hold on, son! I want you to keep an open mind so you can make an informed decision. If you want, you can read a bloated government report on smoking or go straight to the horse's mouth and get the facts from the tobacco industry.
The local power and control freaks should enjoy the major reduction in local power and control the bill provides.
I don't care, I just want my property taxes to go down if it screws up school funding so be it, fix it later.
That's the Spirit!
Please don't forget to claim you didn't support the parts that end up crapping the bed later. Blame that on somebody else. May I suggest the Teacher's Unions and Harrisburg?
I'm no Mitt Romney Capt. of Industry 1%'er, but I'll probably end up paying more if this bill becomes law, and I'm OK with that. What I don't want to happen is to trade one set of problems for another set of equally intractable problems.
From that PTCC website. Fantastic? Extreme? Extremely fantastic? Overkill?
"CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT
School property taxes need to be prohibited from ever being imposed on Pennsylvanians again.
Companion legislation to the The Property Tax Independence Act will provide for a constitutional amendment which GUARANTEES that, once eliminated, school property taxes would be gone forever and that a future legislature could never re-institute the taxing of our properties."
6 comments:
StevenMH posted at 9:24 am on Sat, Jul 27, 2013.
Posts: 1757
Freaking "Me Generation" has been a problem since the damn 60s.
They were more than happy to accept property tax money from ALL property owners in the state - old and young - to fund their own public school education.
They were more than happy to accept property tax money to send their own kids to public school.
Now that it comes time for them to fund the education of today's kids, these greedy old coots cry poor and look for a way out of paying society back for the two generations of education they got. They want to lay it all on the working guy.
No thanks.
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StevenMH posted at 7:59 pm on Fri, Jul 26, 2013.
Posts: 1757
Screwing the working class and giving it to the oldsters. Par for the course.
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pataxpayer posted at 11:24 pm on Fri, Jul 26, 2013.
Posts: 34
StevenMH, how about learning something about this grassroots
legislation before making such comments? Please take 40 minutes to watch this video from the Pennsylvania Coalition of Taxpayer Associations that explains the property tax problem and the details of HB 76. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qle06alZcFA
You can get more information on the coalition's website at www.ptcc.us.
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StevenMH posted at 9:25 am on Sat, Jul 27, 2013.
Posts: 1757
Astroturf.
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Mr Bill posted at 5:03 pm on Fri, Jul 26, 2013.
Posts: 1500
Galloway keeps getting elected, lol. Stop in to Puss N Boots Tavern once and a while. You can watch him get wrecked and assault young women......
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BlueStarMom posted at 11:13 am on Fri, Jul 26, 2013.
Posts: 2529
I would gladly exchange the tax on the value of my house which is intangible for a tax on my income which is real.
I am in my 7th decade and income is fixed and I pay taxes on all of it including social security but at least it is real income, not numbers on a page.
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