by Christopher Dean

Every now and then an idea comes along that is too good to be true. “There must be a catch,” we say. The Property Tax Independence Act, SB76/HB76, was just such an idea. It would have eliminated school property taxes throughout the state.

Yes, you read that right. And, yes, there was a catch: Pennsylvania’s compromised legislators. They voted it down. Were they too beholden to special interests, blinded by tradition, entrenched in personal political agendas? Or were they just not innovative, progressive enough to see the forest through the trees? Take your pick.

This legislation was groundbreaking and would have rocked the boat for sure – shifting the sole burden of school funding from property owners to all citizens, consumers, even visitors to the state, in the form of broad based and higher sales and income taxes.

It would have been a boon to property values throughout Pennsylvania and a jolt to the economy. This was a game changer that would have finally removed the monkey off the back of Pennsylvania homeowners and took government out of the landlord business permanently.

So why do so few of us know about this reality that was not to be? Our legislators hardly promoted the concept, and when they did speak of it, it was in partisan, agenda-oriented terms. And where was the press? This was brave, innovative, maybe even brilliant legislation, at least by Harrisburg’s standards. It shook up generations of archaic, entrenched, 19th century thinking and shot the state into the 21st century. Too much for this group, I suppose.

So here we are, stuck in the past with a predatory confiscation of school property taxes, no different from the predatory lending by the banks during the 2007-08 housing crisis. The premise is the same: take or loan money without regard for a person’s ability to repay. And the results are just as ominous: a housing crisis with skyrocketing foreclosures, sheriff’s sales, family displacement and plummeting property values.

Like predatory lending, it eventually collapses, and so do we. Such predatory lending is now a criminal offense in the banking industry. But for the Pennsylvania legislature it is the preferred method of conducting the business of the state.

There is a powerful television commercial presently airing that graphically describes what could just as easily be our state legislators at work, looking aghast and with utter disdain at new ideas. It is GE’s “Imagination at Work” ad. It describes ideas, as legislators here must, as “scary … ugly, messy and frightening because they threaten what is known.” It is a powerful message and an apt description for how legislators keep their heads in the sand. That this legislation saw the light of day at all is remarkable enough.

Innovation and ideas will not come from this legislature. Innovation requires bold thinking outside the box. In Harrisburg, it is an insider’s game. Citizens (homeowners in this case) are pawns, bit players, moved about as needs arise to advance those on the inside.

Special interests are the big players in this game. They are quite satisfied with a status quo that protects millions of their constituents from bearing any financial responsibility for the funding of the state’s public schools and they intend to keep it that way, no matter how unethical. As the vote against this legislation came down we could see quite clearly that ethics has no place in Harrisburg.

Opponents of the bill say it does not sustain itself and falls into a billion dollar shortfall. They say that school budgets will be harmed in downturned economies. The fact that it is a budgeting system chasing money that is not there doesn’t appear relevant. It is a house of cards philosophy. And we know how that ends.

Proponents have a different take: Finding a billion-dollar savings under The Property Tax Independence Act. School budgets would no longer be chasing the arbitrarily set school property taxes that have risen 146 percent in the past 20 years, well beyond the rate of inflation and economic growth.

State funding for public schools would come from a predictable and stable funding source that increases revenue in line with the economy. Education funding would be tied to consumer based taxes, spending, and the rate of inflation and not to the whim of local school boards in need of quick cash to make up for their fiscal mismanagement.

Property values would rise, more disposable cash would flow into the economy, education funds would be distributed more equitably through the state, families would keep their homes, developers would develop, and new families would invest in an idea once called “The American Dream,” a dream long ago hijacked by the state.

Pennsylvania’s economy will deteriorate and eventually collapse under the weight of its current property tax laws. On this there is unanimous legislative consent. We need look no further for the damage to our property values than to our own property taxes. They have created a housing crisis in Pennsylvania.

Perhaps there is no greater example of this unsustainable economic downturn and its consequences than in Cheltenham Township, where properties are effectively cannibalized by school property taxes. Townships like Cheltenham are imploding and no one is lifting a finger in protest.

It is worth returning to the GE commercial and its powerful conclusion for the moral of this message that “Ideas are messy and fragile, but under the proper care they become something beautiful.” Legislators need to imagine, to rise above themselves and their special interests to do what is right and fair to all of the state’s citizens.

For now, sadly, ideas in Harrisburg aren’t even “too good to be true.” No, ideas at our State House are just scary and frightening and “the natural born enemy of the way things are.” For this legislature it’s back to the comfort zone: business as usual, hobnobbing with the well-connected at the Waldorf, getting on that next committee, renaming some bridges and rolling back right-to-know laws – preferring instead to keep the public out of its business. Is there any wonder why?

Christopher Dean lives in Wyncote, Cheltenham Township.