09/28/2007
State Sen. Jim Rhodes (Schuylkill) this week proposed to raise the sales tax to 9.19 percent and raise the state's personal income tax rate to 4.36 percent as a way to shift education funding from property taxes.
"Is it mind boggling? Of course it is," Rhoades said at a Capitol news conference. "But this is that kind of problem. This is what it's going to take."
Rhoades is proposing to ask voters in a state referendum in November 2008 if they favor higher personal income and sales taxes to reduce school property taxes. He said his plan would generate $9 billion needed to eliminate school property taxes for both residents and businesses in Pennsylvania's 501 school districts.
"For years we have been tinkering around the edges of property tax reform, never fully resolving the problem," Sen. Rhoades said. "My legislation will let the people decide whether to virtually eliminate school property taxes in Pennsylvania."
Several proposals to shift school funding from property taxes to sales or income taxes have been introduced over the last several years. Most recently, state Rep. Sam Rohrer (Berks) proposed to expand the sales tax to all good and services, exempting healthcare and goods and services sold by non-profit organizations, and raising the state personal income tax as a way to all but eliminate property taxes as a way to pay for public education.
