Just over a week into the new year the effort to rid Pennsylvania of school property taxes is ramping up for another try.
State Sen. David G. Argall, a Schuylkill County Republican who also represents part of Berks, has helped lead the recent charge on the issue, introducing Senate Bill 76 last year. That bill would have exchanged school property taxes for increases in the state sales tax.
The bill failed to find its way to the governor’s desk. But, Argall told a small crowd gathered Thursday night at Deluxe Restaurant in Shillington, the new year brings new hope.
“I think we have the votes to get it on the floor, over the floor and over to the House,” he said.
Argall was guest speaker at the monthly meeting of the Berks County Tea Party. A champion of the group’s favorite topic – eliminating school property taxes – he spoke mostly about the status of the effort.
The attention his bill, and its sister bill introduced in the state House, garnered last year has placed the issue in the political limelight, he said.
“We’ve definitely got their attention,” Argall said. “The first step to success is getting the heck on the agenda – and we’re there.”
Argall said he is convinced support for eliminating school property taxes is growing, saying several newly elected House members ran largely on their support of the plan. He said he will be issuing a sponsorship memo for his bill soon, and hopes to get even more support than last year.
If the bill is successful, he said, it will still face the hurdle of a new governor in Tom Wolf who doesn’t support it. But, Argall said, shooting down a bill so popular with the public is something he doesn’t think any governor could do.
“I would not want to be the governor who vetoed that bill,” he said.
Argall thinks school property tax elimination will be one of the top topics in the Legislature this year, but not the first to be addressed. That designation, he said, likely belongs to pension reform.
Argall said fixing the underfunded pension system for state employees and school employees is on the front burner.
“It’s the 800-pound gorilla that’s going to eat all of us alive if we don’t do anything about it,” he said.
Contact David Mekeel: 610-371-5014 or dmekeel@readingeagle.com.