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URGENT PTCC Update
10 April 2012
Dear Friends,
Today’s Update starts with a question: Do you truly want to see school property taxes eliminated? If your answer is “Yes,” then you need to take a mere five minutes a week to become fully involved in the effort. The Property Tax Independence Act has terrific support and great momentum but it’s going to take a STRONG grassroots effort to push it over the finish line. For the next few months we’ll need everyone’s help, so please pitch in and let’s get this done!
On Monday, April 2, a press conference was held in Harrisburg to announce House Bill 1776 and Senate Bill 1400, the Property Tax Independence Act. You can see a replay of the press conference here. If you have a half-hour to spare, please watch the video – it contains a lot of good information.
On Thursday, April 5, HB 1776 was officially introduced in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives by Representative Jim Cox with 60 co-sponsors that include 43 Republicans and 17 Democrats. On Friday, April 13, SB 1400 was introduced in the Pennsylvania Senate by Seantor David Argall with 13 co-sponsors that include 8 Republicans and 5 Democrats. This demonstrates strong bipartisan acceptance of the plan - a very good indication of broad support - and something that we’ve never before seen for this legislation. The list of co-sponsors is on this page below my signature and will be updated as more co-sponsors join.
FIVE MINUTE ACTION ITEM: If your Representative and/or Senator is not included on the co-sponsorship list, please call, write, or email to ask him or her to co-sponsor HB 1776/SB 1400 and ask your friends, neighbors, and relatives to do the same. You may receive excuses, but they’re just that – excuses. The Property Tax Independence Act is an outstanding piece of legislation and there are NO good reasons to not support this plan for school property tax elimination. If they are already a co-sponsor, please contact them to offer your thanks for their support; they will be appreciative of your thanks. In all contacts, please be respectful but firm. Your Representative’s and Senator's contact information by Zip Code is available here.
Taxpayer support of the Property Independence Act has been very gratifying. On April 3 the Reading Eagle published a story about the press conference that included a reader poll asking readers whether or not they agreed with the proposal. As of this writing there have been 1459 votes with 89% of them in agreement with the plan, a tremendous outpouring of public support. You can add your vote and see the results here.
There was also an excellent article published in the PA Independent about the Property Tax Independence Act that explains the financing of the bill. That piece is available here.
* * * * * * * * *
As I mentioned earlier, we’re going to need a vigorous grassroots effort to win the battle for school property tax elimination and we’ll need as many recruits to the cause as possible. There are a few simple things you can do to help.
- Please forward this email to everyone in your Pennsylvania address book and ask them to forward it to their contacts.
- If you’re a Facebook member, please join the PTCC Facebook group and “Like” the Property Tax Independence Act Facebook page. There is always an ongoing conversation about the effort and valuable up-to-the-minute news items on these two pages that would otherwise have to wait for the next PTCC Update. You can easily find these pages with a Facebook search or you can go directly to the pages from here and here.
- One of our biggest obstacles to enactment of Property Tax Independence Act is the lack of taxpayer knowledge about the plan; with more taxpayer awareness we gain valuable support. If you can, please write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper to inform homeowners of this effort and be sure to include the PTCC Web address so readers can find further information. If you wish, you can use the “Quick Facts” and “Ten Reasons” documents that are available on the PTCC website as source material for your letter. <link>
* * * * * * * * *
Finally, in the last PTCC Update I mentioned that the Pennsylvania Coalition of Taxpayer Associations (PCTA) was 64 member groups that support the Property Tax Elimination Act. Since then we’ve grown to 71 and there are more to come. The momentum is with us!
Thank you, everyone, for your support. Now let’s get this done!
David Baldinger
PTCC Administrator
Representatives Co-sponsoring House Bill 1776
as of May 8, 2012, total 69:
| Aument | Lancaster |
| Barrar | Delaware |
| Bear | Lancaster |
| Bloom | Cumberland |
| Boback | Columbia, Luzerne, Wyoming |
| Boyd | Lancaster |
| Brown, R. | Monroe |
| Caltagirone | Berks |
| Christiana | Beaver |
| Costa, D. | Allegheny |
| Cox | Berks |
| Creighton | Lancaster |
| Cutler | Lancaster |
| Daley | Fayette, Washington |
| Davidson | Delaware |
| Davis | Bucks |
| Day | Berks, Lehigh |
| Denlinger | Lancaster |
| Everett | Lycoming |
| Fabrizio | Erie |
| Galloway | Bucks |
| Gergely | Allegheny |
| Gibbons | Beaver, Butler, Lawrence |
| Gillen | Berks |
| Gillespie | York |
| Goodman | Schuylkill |
| Hahn | Northampton |
| Harris | Juniata, Mifflin, Snyder |
| Helm | Dauphin |
| Hennessey | Chester |
| Hess | Bedford, Fulton, Huntingdon |
| Hickernell | Dauphin, Lancaster |
| Hornaman | Erie |
| Kauffman | Cumberland, Franklin |
| Keller, F. | Snyder, Union |
| Keller, M.K. | Franklin, Perry |
| Killion | Chester, Delaware |
| Knowles | Berks, Schuylkill |
| Kortz | Allegheny |
| Krieger | Westmoreland |
| Kula | Fayette, Westmoreland |
| Lawrence | Chester |
| Mahoney | Fayette |
| Maloney | Berks |
| Matzie | Allegheny, Beaver |
| McGeehan | Philadelphia |
| Miccarelli | Delaware |
| Micozzie | Delaware |
| Miller | York |
| Mirabito | Lycoming |
| Moul | Adams, Franklin |
| Mullery | Luzerne |
| Perry | Cumberland, York |
| Quigley | Montgomery |
| Reese | Fayette, Westmoreland |
| Rock | Franklin, Perry |
| Saccone | Allegheny, Washington |
| Santoni | Berks |
| Saylor | York |
| Scavello | Monroe |
| Schroder | Chester |
| Stern | Blair |
| Swanger | Lebanon |
| Tallman | Adams, York |
| Tobash | Berks, Schuylkill |
| Toepel | Montgomery |
| Toohil | Luzerne |
| Truitt | Chester |
| Vereb | Montgomery |
Senators Co-sponsoring Senate Bill 1400
as of May 12, 2012, total 13:
| Alloway | Adams, Franklin, York |
| Argall | Berks, Carbon, Lehigh, Monroe, Northampton, Schuylkill |
| Eichelberger | Bedford, Blair, Fulton, Huntingdon, Mifflin |
| Erickson | Chester, Delaware |
| Ferlo | Allegheny, Armstrong, Westmoreland |
| Folmer | Berks, Chester, Dauphin, Lancaster, Lebanon |
| Mensch | Bucks, Lehigh, Montgomery, Northampton |
| Piccola | Dauphin, York |
| Rafferty | Berks, Chester, Montgomery |
| Schwank | Berks |
| Waugh | York |
| Wozniak | Cambria, Centre, Clearfield, Clinton, Somerset |
| Yudichak | Carbon, Luzerne, Monroe |
Join the effort and stay informed on how you can help! Subscribe to the free PTCC email updates here. (pataxpayers@gmail.com)