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I am strongly in favor of Gov. Tom Wolf’s proposal to provide school funding by raising the sales tax rate as well as through other means, and to reduce or eliminate the antiquated and inequitable system of property taxes.
For far too long, the entire burden of supporting our schools via property taxes has rested solely on the shoulders of the homeowners. To cite what is probably a very common example: An elderly couple scrimps and saves all their lives to buy and maintain their home, paying their property taxes faithfully for years, and supporting and raising their children. Now retired and perhaps living on Social Security as their sole means of income, their home can be taken away from them at any time should they face an unexpected financial emergency and be unable to pay their school taxes in any given year.
The home they saved and paid for, raised their children in, and now their shelter in retirement, can be taken away from them and sold to the highest bidder in a tax sale.
There are so many families, both young and old, who face this same situation simply by virtue of the fact that they are able to own a home. At the same time, those people who do not own property, many of whom benefit directly by the education of their children, are exempt from the responsibility of funding our schools through the annual burden of skyrocketing school taxes. How is this equitable?
It is not, and I feel the time is long overdue to introduce a system whereby the funding of our schools and the education of every child in our state should be shared among all its residents, not just a small percentage.
Connie Douglas
Kingston