Property Tax Commission Being Formed

The Nazareth Area School District has made a public announcement calling for residents of the District to participate in a Local Tax Study Commission.

Applications are due no later than August 14, 2006 at 3 p.m. The Commission will be appointed on or before September 14, 2006 and must render a recommendation within 90 days of appointment.

The application is available here (PDF).

The full advertisement is here (PDF).

The purpose of this Commission is to make a recommendation to the School District Board of Directors to consider whether or not to implement a new tax structure allowed by Act 1 of 2006.

At the crux of this Act is the potential to move from a property based tax structure for residents to either an earned income or personal income tax.

The commission's purpose is fairly well explained by the Tredyffrin/Easttown School District, in Berwyn, PA, whose web site explains:

Recent property tax reform legislation imposes a number of requirements on local school districts. The new law requires the Board of School Directors for the Tredyffrin/Easttown School District to form a citizen Tax Study Commission. Under the new law, the school board must submit at the May 2007 primary election a mandatory referendum question on shifting taxes from the property tax to an income tax. The purpose of the Commission is to make a recommendation to the school board on the type of income tax and the tax rate that will be included in the mandatory referendum question. Under the new law, the Commission’s options are limited to recommending an Earned Income Tax (EIT) or a Personal Income Tax (PIT). The law also prohibits alternate referendum questions concerning an EIT or PIT. The law requires that only one referendum question be submitted to local voters.

The Act stipulates that the "Commission shall consist of five, seven or nine members who are taxpayers and /or resident individuals of the School District and shall reflect the socioeconomic, age, and occupational diversity of the School District to the extent possible." The study process will last no more than 90 days. It is anticipated that weekly evening meetings will commence during the second or third week of September 2006. All meetings will be open to the public pursuant to the Sunshine Act. At the conclusion of the process, the Commission must make a non-binding recommendation to the School Board.

This Commission's work, while non-binding, will be critical to affecting a shift off of what can only be described as an unfair tax practice - residential property tax. I'd encourage anyone with the time available to apply to serve on this commission.