Is one tax better than the other?

When looking at the graphs, there is an obvious line of who will pay more.

But is one tax better for the schools than the other?

Absolutely! FCASD currently collects 99% of the district's Property Taxes. If we switch to Earned Income, the district would certainly be unable to collect that same percentage. Not only would the district incur an increased cost to administer the tax, it will be more difficult to collect. The district only expects to collect @70% of an EIT the first year. Furthermore, Earned Income Tax is less stable than Property Tax. While the houses in this district offer stable income, wage earners can move out of the district taking their money with them.

Is one tax better for our property values than the other?

Again, YES!! Right now, the ability to say your house is located in the FCASD, is a huge selling point. In other words, people want to move into our district because our schools have such a great reputation. If the EIT is imposed here and it is voted down in neighboring districts, there might just be an exodus of our higher wage earners to those districts. No one wants to pay more in taxes. Keeping high wage earners in the district and ensuring our district is a desirable place to live is instrumental in keeping our property values high.

who will pay what

The following table shows how much households will spend/save after their property reduction, if the resolution passes

Household income 1st year	Difference	Household Income 2nd year	Difference
$300,000	$1578	$300,000	$1355
$285,000	$1473	$285,000	$1250
$270,000	$1368	$270,000	$1145
$255,000	$1263	$255,000	$1040
$240,000	$1158	$240,000	$935
$225,000	$1053	$225,000	$830
$210,000	$948	$210,000	$725
$195,000	$843	$195,000	$6200
$180,000	$738	$180,000	$515
$165,000	$633	$165,000	$410
$150,000	$528	$150,000	$305
$135,000	$423	$135,000	$200
$120,000	$318	$120,000	$95
$105,000	$213	$105,000	($10)
$90,000	$108	$90,000	($115)
$75,000	$3	$75,000	($220)
$60,000	($102)	$60,000	($325)
$45,000	($207)	$45,000	($430)
$30,000	($312)	$30,000	($535)
$15,000	($417)	$15,000	($640)
$0	($522)	$0	($745)

wording of the resolution

The following question will appear on May's ballot:

Do you favor increasing the school district's portion of the current Earned Income Tax by imposing an additional 0.7%, effective July 1, 2007? The revenue generated from the increased tax rate will be used to reduce school district taxes on qualified residential property by an estimated $522 in the first year and increasing to approximately $745 in succeeding years. The current school district Earned Income Tax rate is 0.5%

When voting on this issue in May, it is important for taxpayers to realize the following:

• In the first year, a household with a toal income of $75,000 will pay more in total taxes with the increased EIT than they did previsously. The district estimates that there are more than 4,200 households that fall into this category.
• The district's 2,800 renters will pay the increased EIT, but receive no tax relief in return
• Citizens on a fixed income making less than $75,000 should benefit from Act 1 the most in the first year of implementation. The district estimated there are more than 5,000 citizens who are 65 years of age or older.

Political Action Committee forming

Volunteers from each of the district's 6 schools met and began talking about Act 1, the resolution that will be on May's ballot, and how best to get people to the polls to vote.

Our first course of action is a drive to get everyone registered to vote. The registration deadline is April 15th. If you are not registered or know someone that is not registered please go to http://www.dos.state.pa.us/voting/lib/voting/02_voter_registration_applications/onlinevoterregformblank.pdf
and print out this form and send it in before April 15th.

Here are some stats on FCASD's voting history
Number of registered voters - 21,532
Number of voters who voted in the last Primary Election - 4,908
Numver of voters who voted in the last General Election - 12,815
Numbers of perfect voters (last 4 elections) - 2,840
Number of perfect voters age 25 to 55 - 893
Number of perfect voters over 60 - 1,642

If we are going to defeat "The Taxpayer Relief Act" we need our wage earning population to get out and vote!!

Fox Chapel Parents Group

Tax Study Committee Meeting

The committee met this evening and voted to make the following recommendation to the school board - putting the option to raise the EIT .7% on the ballot in spring.

While there was some discussion on PIT being more fair but certainly more volitile, the board did unanimously agree to submit the EIT. One member was clear in that if PIT was worked out by either the state or other districts before referendum, that he would like to consider following suit.

The board will present their recommendation to the school board at their next meeting Monday the 4th at 7:00pm in the LGI room. There will be copies of their formal recommendation for all attendees.

Fox Chapel Parents Group

Act 1, “Taxpayer Relief Act” was enacted June of 2006. Designated as a property tax reduction, it is in fact a tax shift. Tax “help” from gaming money is not a factor for our district at this point, because the law states that a reserve fund of $400 million must be established before any money can be disseminated to the different districts in their qualifying amounts. This law changes district funding in a way that could negatively affect our public schools.

On the May ballot, we will be asked if we want to lower property taxes by either implementing a Personal Income Tax or increasing our Earned Income Tax. The public hearing will illustrate the differences in these two taxes and how each one will affect the taxpaying community. If the referendum fails, we will keep our current property tax structure.

To protect the future of our schools in this district, we need to ensure stability. Only by preserving the funding for our district can we maintain our property values. It’s important to recognize that elementary students will have the longest exposure to the effects of this law on our local education.

Things to consider at the meeting: how do we keep the bulk of our revenue in the most stable, most easily collected and most predictable form that will allow us to maintain revenue for our district? Who benefits from this tax and who does not?

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act 1 timeline

I just found this. http://www.pde.state.pa.us/proptax/lib/proptax/Timeline_2006-07.pdf

it goes over every deadline that the school board needs to meet under the Act.

Post from Dave Esch

Dave Esch left this comment yesterday but I wasn't sure if anyone had seen it. -- KZU

Just a quick word of thanks to Penny and Kristen for setting this up!

I've had a look at some of the links, and it seems the timetable for our responses/input to the Tax group is quite tight. I'm just getting up to speed on the issues (thanks again to Penny), but it struck me that our input at the meeting on the 20th could possibly take the form of a letter, signed by the participants here. Perhaps someone who feels they have a solid grip on the issues could set those out in a draft, which could stimulate discussion/comment.

Any takers?

Dave