Consumer Advocate Says Governor’s Sales Tax Plan Could Make Things Worse

[Panich52]

Consumer Advocate Says Governor’s Sales Tax Plan Could Make Things Worse « CBS Pittsburgh

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf wants to expand the sales tax to include a list of items that aren’t taxed now.

He would like to increase sales taxes and personal income taxes, but decrease corporate income taxes and property taxes for homeowners. (emphasis added *)

...

... consumer advocate Mary Bach of Murrysville.

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Under the plan, you’d start paying state sales tax on cable television. There would also be tax on college textbooks and college meal plans.

Bach points out that items she considers necessities would be taxed under the plan.

“Under the new plan, toilet tissue will now be taxed at a rate of 6.6 cents on the dollar,” she says.

Tickets to spectator sports, such as the Steelers or Pirates, would fall under the state sales tax. So would newspapers, candy, gum, toothpaste, toothbrushes, aspirin, vitamins, even diapers.

“Disposable diapers can already be fairly pricey, particularly when a baby is using eight or 10 or more a day,” said Bach.

Garbage collection would be taxed. So would caskets and tombstones, and also daycare.

...

"Right now, we are being sold another bill of goods I think about property tax relief,” said Bach.

More
http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2015/03/18/consumer-advocate-says-governors-sales-tax-plan-could-make-things-worse/


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* This was my worry at electing businessman as governor -- preference f/ corporations when it comes to tax burden. Why should college students and parents of infants cover the bill?

[upaloopa]

1. Property taxes fund county government services.

If property taxes were lowered county budgets would suffer so services would need to be cut. Also you hear cries to gut county employee salaries and pensions when services are cut or county government budgets must be cut.
Sales taxes go to the State which does not send all that money to the cities and counties.
What is happening here is to balance the state budgets on the backs of county workers in the long run.

[Divernan]

6. School District taxes main culprit re high property taxes; due to legislative budget cuts

As a general example: I pay 3 property taxes: County (about 450); local township (about 250) and school district (2300). Why this huge discrepancy, with school districts charging six to 10 times as much as county/townships? For decades, the state legislature managed to avoid raising state income taxes by balancing the state budget by cutting funding to the school districts. This started well before Corbett but he continued the practice. The school districts responded by raising property tax rates.

In other words, the state used to pay a much higher share per student, and this was a good thing because it evened out the quality of education across the state. There are 784 school districts in the state, and a tremendous disparity in per pupil spending/quality of education among them:

Overall school districts in the state made up for the freeze in the state share by increasing the local share, usually by raising property taxes.

As these numbers show, the Corbett cuts slowed but did not stop spending on education; they simply shifted more of the cost from the state to local governments. To use one example, Philadelphia has increased taxes three times to help fill the deficit left by the retreat of the state from funding education.

In Pennsylvania, the state is the equalizer between districts with wealth and those without. School districts located in wealthier communities are able to bring in significantly more money for their schools and thus spend more on their students. For poorer districts, the state is expected to make up the difference between the cost of public education and the money the district brings in through property taxes.

“We are excessively depending on real property taxes to support schools,” said Ron Cowell, president of The Education Policy and Leadership Center.

http://axisphilly.org/article/the-haves-and-have-nots-of-education-spending/

The state has a property tax /rent rebate program with a sliding scale depending upon income. Allegheny County gives a homestead exemption break via Act 50:

What is the Homestead Act, and do I qualify?
The Homestead Act (Act 50) is a program that reduces your market value by $18,000 for County taxes only. To qualify, you must be the owner and occupy the dwelling as your primary residence. The application deadline is March 1 of each year. You do not have to reapply each year. Once you have filed, your exemption will remain in effect until you sell/transfer the property or change your occupancy. In addition, if you have previously filed and qualified for the Act 50 exclusion, you are automatically registered for the Act 1 program.

This was recently raised from $15 to $18 thousand following the disastrous reassessment:
Not anymore. County lawyers realized that state law required council to raise the discount after a reassessment, sort of like how it's required to lower the tax rate to prevent windfall revenue. Tuesday, council bumped the exemption up to $18,000, keeping the average savings per resident at around $85.

The property tax relief promised from casino gambling has fallen pretty far short. Good analysis of this at:http://axisphilly.org/article/the-haves-and-have-nots-of-education-spending/

[Divernan]

7. Mega business/faux "charity" UPMC avoids property taxes

UPMC is Pennsylvania’s largest nongovernmental employer and Allegheny County’s largest property owner, with 656 acres and $1.6 billion in land and buildings. Eighty-six percent of that property is tax-exempt, according to a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette analysis.

If it were not a nonprofit, and thus exempt from paying certain taxes(property and payroll), UPMC would owe the city $20 million more in taxes every year.

http://www.post-gazette.com/local/city/2014/07/29/UPMC-city-drop-legal-fight-over-taxes/stories/201407290183
That would go a hell of a way to fund county government services, wouldn't it?

But UPMC bullied/bluffed new Pittsburgh mayor Peduto into dropping the city's lawsuit. Meanwhile the county chief executive, Rich Fitzgerald, continues to give UPMC a free ride. He is too busy attacking fellow Democrat, county controller Chelsa Wagner (how dare she audit fellow Democratic office holders - like him, even though that's what she was elected to do? Doesn't she respect the old boy/machine code!?!) He made an unannounced appearance at our Democratic groups' candidates night, even though he has no opposition in the primary, and wasn't on the list of scheduled speakers, purely for the purpose of viciously attacking Chelsa Wagner. I'd prefer him to direct all that vitriol and venom toward UPMC!

[JPZenger]

8. UPMC is pushing Legislature to approve a constitutional amendment on their tax free status

On October 1, 2014, UPMC became self-aware.

It actually stands for Unrestrained Pennsylvania Medical Conglomerate.

UPMC has been pressuring the Legislature for the last year to push through an amendment to the State Constitution to protect their tax exempt status. That is because they didn't like a State Supreme Court decision on the matter.

[Curmudgeoness]

2. I was shocked when I first read about this plan,

devised by a Democratic governor. Although property tax relief is needed, it is at least based on value of property...the more expensive your house is, the higher your tax. If you have a very modest house, you pay less.

Sales taxes are regressive. They hit the poor and middle classes much harder than they hit the wealthy. Adding items to be taxed will just hit the same people harder. A more noble fight on sales tax could be taxing of internet purchased---saving brick and mortar stores in the state while collecting sales taxes on all the purchased that are now getting a free pass.

There are a lot of solutions to the deficit problems of cities, counties, and the state that are more fair. I look at the "earned income tax" that my city has, and I wonder why it is only on earned income? A person who retires at age 50 because they have so much money that they do not need to work, and earns more than most workers earn on investments and retirement packages, pays no income tax to the city. I don't see how this is fair. The minimum wage earner is paying income tax on ever dollar that they earn busting their ass, while others pay nothing.

Another solution has been talked about for years---the cost of our state government, second only to California if the statistics are still the same as when I heard it. There is no reason that this state should spend so much on governing.

Then there is that flat tax on income in the state, that is also regressive. If I were going to fight for tax changes, this would be a more worthwhile fight. It hurts the person making $20,000 a whole lot more to pay the state income tax than it hurts the person making $2,000,000. It means that the low wage workers may not be able to pay the utility bills or rent, but the high wage earners may not be able to buy a pair of expensive shoes with matching handbag.

Or how about all the companies who come in and get significant tax breaks for moving into an area and claiming they will create 100 jobs, but never get over 25 jobs created? Why are we not holding them to the agreement, and billing them for the 3/4 of the tax break that they reneged on.

The idea that corporations should not have to pay taxes, or should pay very little, makes no sense. They require the same services from government that we all to---fire departments, decent roads, police.

I would like to know what they do with all the money that we send them. Reading the budgets doesn't answer my questions. I believe that they could cut the budget significantly with some "austerity" of their own---and that does not mean getting rid of more inspectors or road crews. It means making it a lot less lucrative to be a Harrisburg politician. And when they talk of cutting inspectors and road crews, I suggest that we first cut legislators.

[JPZenger]

3. This sales and service tax plan was pushed for years by right wingers in the legislature

Taxes on toilet paper, nursing homes, home health care and college meal plans are regressive.

[Curmudgeoness]

4. I know...so

why is a Democratic governor proposing the same thing? That is what really bothers me. There I was, so glad to have a Democrat in the governor's mansion, only to be slapped down by him after the first month.

The good news is that the Republicans hate Democrats so much that they are bitching about this plan, that used to be their plan all the way down to reducing corporate taxes. I have not been paying a great deal of angst over this until I see it moving forward.

[Divernan]

5. Bach:impressive resume/history; self-taught consumer advocate;beats Wal-Mart in court.

Ed Rendell would tell Wolf, don't mess with Mary Bach!

Gov. Ed Rendell has appointed the Murrysville resident to serve a four-year term on the Senior Citizen Advisory Committee. The panel works under the auspices of the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency, specifically dealing with all crimes against seniors.

Bach is ready to do battle with charity scams, investment scams, telephone sweepstakes scams and the like, and most won't know what hit them. "She looks like she'd be a quiet woman who knows her place, that's how she speaks, how she dresses," Lynn Cullen said. "But I mean she's a barracuda."

http://old.post-gazette.com/localnews/20031208newsmaker1208p5.asp

(Headline) MURRYSVILLE WOMAN BEATS WAL-MART IN COURT OVER $2 ERROR.

The Murrysville woman has been acting as a consumer advocate for several years, and often takes big retail companies to court when she finds errors at the checkout counter. On Monday morning, Wal-Mart decided not to fight Bach's latest lawsuit, so District Judge Charles Conway ruled in her favor and awarded Bach $100 for being overcharged on a $2 purchase at the company's Delmont store.

Conway gave Bach another judgment against the same store on May 28. Bach said she sued because she alerted management about the error but the price scan was not corrected on her subsequent visits to the store.

Though the $100 award is relatively minor, Bach said it's not the money that's important to her. She wants shoppers to be aware that mistakes can happen, so they should check to make sure that the advertised price is correctly scanned at the checkout.

http://www.wtae.com/Murrysville-Woman-Beats-Wal-Mart-In-Court-Over-2-Error/7745288

She's about 71 now, and I hadn't heard anything about her for awhile. Governor Wolf would be wise to turn to her for advice.