Poll: Majority of taxpayers want Pa. school property taxes gone
Three in five registered Pennsylvania voters who responded to a recent poll question said they want school property taxes replaced with broader, statewide taxes.
The finding in the Franklin & Marshall College August poll came as a handpicked group of state lawmakers headed into the first of a series of work group meetings to talk about replacing the much-despised property tax.
“It confirms what I have been hearing in the counties that I represent,” state Sen. David Argall, a Republican who represents Schuylkill and part of Berks County, said just before the meeting started at the Capitol.
In many districts across the state, bills for the tax went out to property owners last month. Many are for several thousand dollars or more. One Lehigh Valley lawmaker referred to the lawmaker’s own property tax bill as approaching $10,000.
The poll done by the college’s Center for Opinion Research also found that 61% of registered voters believe that the state’s tax system needs a fundamental overhaul.
The school property tax generates about $15 billion in revenue for school districts across the state. Unsuccessful proposals in the Legislature to replace or reduce it by raising a variety of other taxes have been around for decades.
Argall has introduced such legislation each of the last three legislative sessions. The last vote on one happened in 2015, when a 24-24 tie in the Senate was broken by a negative vote by then-Lt. Gov. Mike Stack.
But Argall expressed optimism Thursday in the Capitol.
“We are trying a new model,” he said of the work group. “The fact that the four floor leaders have each sent members to this informal group at least indicates some degree of interest.”
The group is expected to meet at least several more times by late September. Its goal is to come up with a concept for tax shifting that could get passing vote totals of 102 in the House and 26 in the Senate, as well as meet with approval from Gov. Tom Wolf.
The group includes Democrat state Sens. Lisa Boscola of Northampton County, Judy Schwank of Berks County, and John Yudichak of Carbon County.
House members involved in the work group include Democrats Peter Schweyer of Lehigh County and Perry Warren of Bucks County.
The poll with property tax questions involved 627 voters and was taken from late July into the first several days of August. Its margin of error is plus/minus 6 percentage points.
Large majorities of both Democrat and Republican poll respondents agreed to the statement: “Pennsylvania’s system of state and local taxes need a fundamental overhaul.”
Asked to name the most important problem facing Pennsylvania today, more poll respondents, 16%, said “taxes” than any other response.
The second-ranked answer, education or school, was cited by 13%. The third-ranked answer was a tie between “government, politicians” and “unemployment, personal finances,” each of which received a 12% response.