posted by Mike Madison at 8:39 PM /
I received the following email late today. I'm not sure that I buy the argument, but I'm reproducing it in case it you're still trying to figure out what to make of Act 1:
The Mt Lebanon School Board has threatened us with a tax hike equaling $1.12 per month per $100,000 of assessed valuation if Act 1 passes.
Other Boards told their residents what tax savings they would get under Act 1. Mt Lebanon did not.
Our tax saving information is deep in the district website. All the negative publicity is on page 1.
Our Board didn’t tell us about the REFERENDUM AGAINST LARGE TAX HIKES contained in Act 1, or
the ACT 1 provision that would FORCE LARGE HEALTH CARE CO-PAYS when the union contract extension expires in 2010.
Never has so much been withheld from so many by so few.
I will be voting for the property tax reduction.
If you vote against it don’t complain about school taxes.
Labels: Act 1, school district, taxes
20 Comments:
Is this for real? Please ask your source to post a link to the information they are referring to.
Does anyone have the exact wording that will appear on Lebo's ballot?
Can everyone (by writing anonymous) blog by leaving your vote and why?
I am voting against it for the following reasons:
1. If it passes here and not in Upper St Clair, home values may go down.
2. Although I will pay less in taxes if this passes, when my wife starts working I won't.
Exact wording:
Do you favor your school district imposing an additional .9% earned income tax? The revenue generated from the tax increase will be used to reduce taxes to qualified owner occupied residential properties by approximately $640 the first year and increasing to approximately $914 in succeeding years. The current school district earned income and net profits tax rate is .5% and the current combined municipal/school district rate is 1.3%.
I may save $640 but my wage tax will INCREASE by .9% so there is no savings for me.
The district will have an immediate loss of $400,000 in investment earnings from the change in timing of the tax receipts. We pay property taxes once a year; EIT is collected over the year, in 4 different installments. When the property taxes are collected, the money is invested so that it works for the District. So either programs will get cut or taxes will get raised.
I'm voting for it. I'm a senior with no earned income but steep property taxes. I'm voting my best interests. The schools need to cut back; we spend way to much per pupil in this district. Teachers need to pay more for their health benefits than they do.
This a pure zero sum game - for every dollar someone has their property taxes reduced someone else will pay more earned income tax. It pits retirees and lower wage home owners against higher earners, dual income families and renters. There is no expense control embodied here(Mt. Lebanon even has a waiver from the fairly toothless controls there were in Act 1, the pool of dollars remains the same, and all that changes is how much we each pay in. As with everyone else I guess I will be voting my own self interest - no.
How we control the rising costs of education is a separate question from this referendum.
I wonder how that senior would feel about losing a portion of his house value...
Screw the youngsters paying the taxes!!!!!
I voted against it, even though my taxes would be reduced if it passes. Bottom line I fear if MtL passes it and USC doesn't, then in 10-20 years all that would be left in MtL is a bunch of seniors looking out for what is best for them. Not exactly a healthy outlook.
Yeah, and watch the value of your house decrease as the property taxes keep climbing. High property taxes also reduce demand for real estate.
But its about helping the poor seniors who own the $400K House in Mt Lebanon.
You've got it backwards. Higher property taxes do not drive property values down, or visa versa. There are many other municipalities in Allegheny County with higher property taxes. Go download a list of millage rates from the County website and you will see that Mt Lebo having higher tax rates is a myth.
Property taxes in New York City and Northern NJ, Philadelphia, and other regions have much higher property taxes but that has not hurt value or demand.
Property values and real estate demand are pretty much the same thing - if there is growth in a region that will spur demand which pushes up property values. In a region like Western PA the value of a home is not correlated with property taxes but demand which is usually fueled by the quality of the school district. The property tax dollar amounts are only high in Mt. Lebo because property values are high.
Cry and moan about the taxes all you want just be happy that your tax dollars are going towards quality education, a lot of municipalities have higher tax rates than we do and horrible public school systems. I lived in the city which has a terrible public school system yet still has high school property taxes, higher rates than Mt. Lebo.
I think Schultz has misinterpreted everyone's comments.
Sure, in Mt. Lebanon, property values go up due to it's location and schools.
HOWEVER. If the way the money is taxed (ACT 1) changes, different things can happen.
The concern is that if you don't work, your Property taxes will go down (because you have no income tax). So some rich kid whose Daddy buys him a house gets less taxes than the dual working family in a much smaller house. That retiree in his/her mansion could pay less than the young family trying to scrape by.
Not only that, but if neighboring school districts do not pass the same bill, you will see people who earn higher income go to those districts (example, St Clair is only a few notches away on the top school lists).
Lebo doesn't need to attract seniors who don't want to pay taxes. They want to attract professionals with high incomes. This will not attract those professionals. It may attract people who live in Upper St. Clair who don't earn an income....
And if more seniors move in to the county, they will need to raise the income tax again on the younger folks....
But hey, this bill is dead anyways, because of the above reasons.
Sorry, I was responding to this post
"Yeah, and watch the value of your house decrease as the property taxes keep climbing. High property taxes also reduce demand for real estate."
So no, I did not misinterpret, just dropping some knowledge.
What's all this griping about seniors who live in bigger houses than you do owing you taxes?
The seniors earned their houses. Did you earn a bigger house or are you looking for a free ride??
To answer the anonymous about the bigger houses, the answer is that you will force young working families into other districts. Their taxes will be raised while they are living in a modest house while.
A rich person in a huge house paying little taxes doesn't help Mt Lebanon at all.
I never claimed the rich senior didn't earn their house, I'm just claiming they shouldn't be given a free ride under Act 1. (which is why it failed)
? A senior living in a 400K house pays $9,424 in school taxes and Act 1 would have made that $8,524 and that is a free ride? Really! Did you build this district or did they?
Who takes the free ride?
They didn't build the district. Also, once more seniors move into Lebo, they will need to raise the income tax rate again. It would have been the start.
But again, this is why it was voted down.
The question was; “Did you build this district or did they?”
You say they didn’t build the district but can’t/don’t take credit yourself.
So, who built the district, freerider?
The district has been around for a long time. Anyone who built this district may be at the Devonshire or Asbury Heights.
OK. You were right. All the people who voted against it were wrong.
Let's bring in the old, and get rid of the young people. Let's raise taxes and send our young working families to St. Clair/Sewickly/etc and bring in more seniors (who never even lived here). "Come to Mt. Lebanon, you will pay less for a home here and pay less in taxes, as long as you don't work."
Most people who have lived in a Mt Lebanon home for 20+ years have a much lower assessment than the young people who just moved there (check out longuevue drive on the allegheny county website) Some have $180K assessments on their $400K home. Let's give them another tax break and make those bad young people pay more.
It's called Growth. If it passed in Lebo and failed in St Clair, it would have been the start of something bad. The assessment problem is already bad enough when 1 person pays 50% less in Property taxes than their neighbor with a much smaller house.
You can always call
Two Men and a Truck.
Ah, the usual Pittsburgh response. Instead of discussing how to improve things, "get out."
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