By Dan Hardy
Inquirer Staff Writer
Pennsylvania voters' widespread rejection Tuesday of an income tax to replace a portion of their school property taxes has state leaders considering alternatives, including a statewide sales tax increase to reduce the property tax and controls on school spending.
After the resounding defeat of the Act 1 ballot questions in Tuesday's primary election, Gov. Rendell yesterday reiterated his proposal to increase the sales tax to reduce property taxes.
Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi said voter rejection of the income tax proposals should signal an end to such efforts for now and a move instead toward controlling school spending to keep taxes down.
Voters almost universally rejected the opportunity to reduce their school property taxes by increasing income taxes, with only one of the 63 Philadelphia-area districts - Bristol Borough - approving the measure and only four voting yes statewide, according to a Pennsylvania Department of State compilation of returns.
The ballot question was approved in Bristol Borough by just one vote, according to unofficial returns; that count does not include absentee ballots and could change. In almost all the districts that voted no, it wasn't close; the ratio was typically better than 2-1. In some districts, the vote was 4-1 or more against; they included Bucks County's Bensalem and Centennial districts, Delaware County's Chichester, Penn-Delco, Rose Tree Media and Radnor districts, Chester County's Coatesville, Owen J. Roberts and Tredyffrin/Easttown districts, and Montgomery County's Upper Merion District. One exception was Bucks County's New Hope-Solebury district, where the question was turned down by 52 percent to 48 percent.
The tax relief votes were mandated by Act 1, the state property tax relief legislation passed last year. Other portions of the law, including sending gaming money to districts for property tax relief and requiring school budget questions in districts that want to raise taxes above a state-set inflation index, remain in place regardless of Tuesday's outcome.
Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Scranton did not have the ballot question, and are to get wage tax relief.
It will take some time to figure out the next step toward property tax relief, other than what is already in place through Act 1, said Pileggi (R., Delaware). But one thing is immediately evident, he said: "It is a very clear signal that people do not want to shift from a locally imposed property tax to a locally imposed income tax. . . . People aren't happy about school property taxes, but compared to an earned income tax, they prefer it."
Pileggi added that lawmakers in Harrisburg should now look at why school districts typically increase spending and taxes more than the rate of inflation and what can be done to change that.
House Minority Leader Sam Smith (R., Jefferson) echoed that sentiment in a statement yesterday: "Voters across Pennsylvania rejected the idea of a local tax shift to fund what many consider only temporary property tax relief. People don't want taxes increased, period."
Smith added that the message meant to him that "Harrisburg must give schools more flexibility and less mandates" so that school spending can be reduced.
Rendell had a different take. He said in a statement yesterday that the votes confirmed his emphasis on the need for "statewide funding for local property tax relief," including his budget proposal to "modestly increase the sales tax and use these new revenue to lower property taxes this year."
In his budget address earlier this year, Rendell proposed a sales tax increase from 6 percent to 7 percent; half the new revenue, or $420 million, would be used to cut property taxes.
Some rank-and-file Republican legislators embrace that perspective but go even further. "I think the next approach will be to find a way to eliminate property taxes, at least for schools, by acting at the state level to institute an increase in the sales tax and perhaps some income tax increase," said State Rep. David Steil (R., Bucks), an Act 1 co-author who had supported the local tax-shift idea.
"As much as voters do not like property taxes, shifting partly to an income tax is not better, in their minds," Steil said yesterday. "If we could find a way to eliminate property taxes in favor of another tax, it might work, but a partial change is a no-go. People did not have enough confidence in the government to trust that their taxes really would be reduced; they regarded it as two taxes rather than a shift from one to another."
Steil's views mirrored those of several area taxpayer associations that stumped against the Act 1 ballot questions, helping ensure their defeat.
Jim Lentz, the president of the 1,825-member Coatesville Taxpayers Alliance, said yesterday that his organization was determined to make sure that legislators interpreted Tuesday's vote as a call to replace the property tax with statewide revenue to fund schools.
"The property tax as the major source of funding for schools is placing the burden on just one group of people - it's unfair and unworkable," he said. "Somewhere along the line, someone has to get that message, and if it comes with some of these officials being voted out of office, so be it."
Contact staff writer Dan Hardy at 610-701-7638 or dhardy@phillynews.com.
Friday, May 18, 2007
Battle over cyber schools bill heats up
Teachers union, school boards back Beyer's bill on state funding.
By Martha Raffaele Of The Associated Press
The lobbying groups for Pennsylvania school boards and public school teachers don't often see eye to eye on education policy.
But they agree on the need for the state to more strictly regulate cyber charter schools -- which enable students to learn at home, using the Internet to connect to teachers and classroom materials -- and take on the full burden of paying for them.
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Lehigh Valley Local Links
A bill that would require the state to fund cyber schools and limit the amount of tuition the schools can charge has the support of the Pennsylvania School Boards Association and the Pennsylvania State Education Association, the state's largest teachers union.
That makes cyber school administrators uneasy. Pennsylvania has 11 cyber schools that enroll 17,000 students.
''If we have to fight against their heavy lobbying efforts, where they have dozens of people that can meet with legislators all day on Capitol Hill … and our message doesn't reach them in time, I believe some very dangerous legislation could be passed,'' said Jim Hanak, chief executive officer of Pennsylvania Leadership Charter School, a West Chester-based cyber school.
The legislation sponsored by Rep. Karen Beyer, R-Lehigh, calls for the state Education Department to pay for cyber schools, but would limit the amount of tuition the schools can collect to a range of $3,000 to $5,000 per pupil, depending on a school's enrollment.
Under the state's 1997 charter school law, school districts must pay tuition rates that are equivalent to roughly 75 percent of the state and local tax dollars they spend per pupil -- an amount that varies widely from district to district. Those rates apply to children enrolled in cyber schools and more traditional ''bricks and mortar'' charter schools.
School boards have long questioned whether the current charter school funding formula reflects the true cost of educating cyber school students, since the schools don't need to pay for transportation or the cost of maintaining school buildings.
''The dollar amounts that school districts are paying for these schools keep going up,'' school board association lobbyist Tim Allwein said. ''Our folks want to see a system whereby all payments to cyber schools are equal.''
Given that cyber schools' enrollment isn't restricted by geographical boundaries, it makes more sense for the state to pay for them, association president James Weaver said.
''Cyber charter schools can draw students from all over the state,'' Weaver said. ''I think that's problematic for school districts to deal with.''
Cyber school administrators argue that Beyer's proposed formula would put them out of business. They say the notion that cyber schools cost much less than traditional schools is wrong because they incur significant technology expenses, such as providing each student with a computer and an Internet connection, using an online curriculum, and equipment maintenance.
''That's almost equivalent to the cost of having buildings,'' Hanak said.
But Beyer insists that her bill merely seeks to control the cost of cyber education and make the schools more accountable to taxpayers.
''If I was really intending to wipe these schools out, I would say, 'No public funding,''' said Beyer, a former Saucon Valley school board member.
Beyer's bill is currently in the House Education Committee, which plans to hold hearings on the measure over the summer, said Christopher Wakeley, the committee's executive director.
And Gov. Ed Rendell's administration isn't ready to embrace the measure. While the state Education Department shares Beyer's concerns about cyber school costs, ''we don't agree that the answer is for the state to assume responsibility'' for funding them, department spokeswoman Sheila Ballen said.
In the meantime, parents of cyber school students are mounting their own lobbying efforts. Pennsylvania Families for Public Cyber Schools, an organization of about 450 families, rallied in the Capitol last week.
''We needed … to say 'We want to protect our cyber schools,''' said Jenny Bradmon, the organization's president, whose two children are enrolled in the Pennsylvania Virtual Charter School, based in Norristown. ''We like what they're doing, and they're working for our kids.''
www.mcall.com
By Martha Raffaele Of The Associated Press
The lobbying groups for Pennsylvania school boards and public school teachers don't often see eye to eye on education policy.
But they agree on the need for the state to more strictly regulate cyber charter schools -- which enable students to learn at home, using the Internet to connect to teachers and classroom materials -- and take on the full burden of paying for them.
Mobile News | Subscribe Online | Order Reprints
Lehigh Valley Local Links
A bill that would require the state to fund cyber schools and limit the amount of tuition the schools can charge has the support of the Pennsylvania School Boards Association and the Pennsylvania State Education Association, the state's largest teachers union.
That makes cyber school administrators uneasy. Pennsylvania has 11 cyber schools that enroll 17,000 students.
''If we have to fight against their heavy lobbying efforts, where they have dozens of people that can meet with legislators all day on Capitol Hill … and our message doesn't reach them in time, I believe some very dangerous legislation could be passed,'' said Jim Hanak, chief executive officer of Pennsylvania Leadership Charter School, a West Chester-based cyber school.
The legislation sponsored by Rep. Karen Beyer, R-Lehigh, calls for the state Education Department to pay for cyber schools, but would limit the amount of tuition the schools can collect to a range of $3,000 to $5,000 per pupil, depending on a school's enrollment.
Under the state's 1997 charter school law, school districts must pay tuition rates that are equivalent to roughly 75 percent of the state and local tax dollars they spend per pupil -- an amount that varies widely from district to district. Those rates apply to children enrolled in cyber schools and more traditional ''bricks and mortar'' charter schools.
School boards have long questioned whether the current charter school funding formula reflects the true cost of educating cyber school students, since the schools don't need to pay for transportation or the cost of maintaining school buildings.
''The dollar amounts that school districts are paying for these schools keep going up,'' school board association lobbyist Tim Allwein said. ''Our folks want to see a system whereby all payments to cyber schools are equal.''
Given that cyber schools' enrollment isn't restricted by geographical boundaries, it makes more sense for the state to pay for them, association president James Weaver said.
''Cyber charter schools can draw students from all over the state,'' Weaver said. ''I think that's problematic for school districts to deal with.''
Cyber school administrators argue that Beyer's proposed formula would put them out of business. They say the notion that cyber schools cost much less than traditional schools is wrong because they incur significant technology expenses, such as providing each student with a computer and an Internet connection, using an online curriculum, and equipment maintenance.
''That's almost equivalent to the cost of having buildings,'' Hanak said.
But Beyer insists that her bill merely seeks to control the cost of cyber education and make the schools more accountable to taxpayers.
''If I was really intending to wipe these schools out, I would say, 'No public funding,''' said Beyer, a former Saucon Valley school board member.
Beyer's bill is currently in the House Education Committee, which plans to hold hearings on the measure over the summer, said Christopher Wakeley, the committee's executive director.
And Gov. Ed Rendell's administration isn't ready to embrace the measure. While the state Education Department shares Beyer's concerns about cyber school costs, ''we don't agree that the answer is for the state to assume responsibility'' for funding them, department spokeswoman Sheila Ballen said.
In the meantime, parents of cyber school students are mounting their own lobbying efforts. Pennsylvania Families for Public Cyber Schools, an organization of about 450 families, rallied in the Capitol last week.
''We needed … to say 'We want to protect our cyber schools,''' said Jenny Bradmon, the organization's president, whose two children are enrolled in the Pennsylvania Virtual Charter School, based in Norristown. ''We like what they're doing, and they're working for our kids.''
www.mcall.com
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
CONSTITUTIONAL REPUBLIC BREAKFAST CLUB
Saturday May 19th at 9am,
Reflections Café, 644 Center Avenue, West View, PA 15229
Come join the discussion! The topic will be a Constitutional republic v. Democracy.
The cost is whatever you order from the menu.
Reflections Café, 644 Center Avenue, West View, PA 15229
Come join the discussion! The topic will be a Constitutional republic v. Democracy.
The cost is whatever you order from the menu.
PA state chairman debates a constitutional convention
May 22nd - (Hagan Smith Chairman for the Constitution Party of PA pictured left will be debating Russ Diamond pictured right leader of PA Cleansweep on PA's Constitutional Convention. It will be aired live on May 22 at 10:00 a.m. on “Speak Out!” on Altoona's Public Access channel.).
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