Rendell, lawmakers spar over property tax appeals

Christine Joyce's latest property tax bill has dashed her dream to move from an old house with a tiny kitchen to a brand-new place in the country with a big yard.

[Joe Blow]

If the school district tried to randomly jack up my assessment like this, I would not be above finding out what individual decided to do it, calling them up, and telling them to go f-off.

[ForSure]

IF EVERYONE was paying up to date valued property taxes, EVERYONE'S taxes would stay level or come down. The fact that so many are getting away with paying hardly any taxes due to decades passing with out proper property assessments, should be a concern for the majority who pay their fair share.

[Mike S]

Outside of a couple of school districts in Schuylkill County, the majority of districts that file reverse appeals do so on large underpaying commercial properties. What the articles does not mention is that the Allentown School Distrct, Wilkes-Barre SD, etc. have saved ALL of us MILLIONS of dollars by appealing shopping centers and casinos. Mohegan Sun was forced to pay $15 million more due to the district. People need to be made aware of the real benefits of this practice.

[comment]

Pennsylvania should legislate that tax assessment changes can only occuring every 10 years, for all properties, in all counties.

This practice of "spot" assessment is inherently unfair.

[Sick of Allentown]

The State of Florida does not have all these taxes that PA (Pay) does. The only thing that they have is property tax and then you can be homestead exempted for the first 25,000 dollars of your house. Some houses you can for 25,000 and be homestead exempted.

Florida does not have all the ridiculous taxes, i.e, State, county, municipal, occupational tax, school taxes, etc. The educational system is funded by the lottery.

Our water and sewer bill comes every month and they even have garbage into the billing instead of adding it to the municipal taxes.

Florida is not taxed to death.

But now I know why Pennsylvania has the state initials of PA...because when you come here, you pay and get nothing for your money.

[Berks_Iraq_Vet]

If they were serious about eliminating school property taxes, they would not be arguing about the frequency of reassessments.
Guess that says it all.

[kristin]

What is wrong with this state? Rendell promised all of this money from the casinoes he talked everyone into to approving! Where is the money? LIAR

[jones]

He lied ? If he would have put the casino issue to a vote it never would have flown. It was passed along with the 2;00am pay grab . The citizens of Pa had nothing to do with it ,except a few meetings that were turned into a foregone conclusion that we would be getting tax relief from slots.
Moody's has downgraded Fncb of Dunmore and put LVS on notice of being downgraded ? There's your tax relief , a crook and a left hook.

Before any tax relief there are plenty of people to get paid and tax relief is at the bottom of the list.

[Ruby]

Why don't we just deed everything over to the "state" ....they get to own it along with the county,school system anyway if you can't pay up .Land of the free , home of the tax payers .

[Todd Crandall]

I am sorry but our system for taxes just is not good there is so much tax on tax that schools and goverments need to look at how to save money and cut taxes. to rip off any one is a shame no matter there age . our cost of living gose up but how many people get pay increases ??? why shopuld just goverment and schhol get more money instead of learning how to offer more for less ?? or just cut and it dose not matter where you live in the state . think about how much money schools get on diff. levels .

i pay 3 dff taxes to the school district I live in plus the get federal money and state money all is from us the tax payers

[Ruby]

What is wrong with this state? Rendell promised all of this money from the casinoes he talked everyone into to approving! Where is the money? LIAR
well said ! He needed the money for a pet project ?

[Susan]

Mike S wrote:

Outside of a couple of school districts in Schuylkill County, the majority of districts that file reverse appeals do so on large underpaying commercial properties. What the articles does not mention is that the Allentown School Distrct, Wilkes-Barre SD, etc. have saved ALL of us MILLIONS of dollars by appealing shopping centers and casinos. Mohegan Sun was forced to pay $15 million more due to the district. People need to be made aware of the real benefits of this practice.

Reply: There are 67 counties in PA that the school districts are reassessing properties. Who gave the school districts the right to reassess properties? thought they were there to run our school boards, not our properties!!! If we let them do this, what's next? They raise our school taxes every year, now reassess our properties, when is it going to end? We are being taxed to death, not only by our schools but also our state.

[Speedo]

Remember all those "casino" profits the state was going to use to reduce taxes......GONE

[snowman Allentown PA]

They are arguing so that we forget about illegal pay raises, bonusgate, property rebates, corrupt casino gambling boards, money from gangsters, etc. This is nothing but a farce, like everything they do. The commonwealth is probably listed as 57 out of 50 state and commonwealth governments.

[FatEd]

Fat cheese steak Ed would never argue about stuffing his face. You greasy scum Ed Rendsmell.

[FELLOW US CITIZEN]

Why is it that voting pa's vote for all these incumbents at voting time?

[jones]

Forbe's downgraded LVS stock 2 days ago. Yesterday it jumped 4$ a share. This is how the money game is played when you get to fly to Israel on the same plane as the President, sit beside him in Israel at the Israel American meeting, are the largest doner to the Republican Party and GW Bush. Way to go Sheldon, I just bought a 1,000 shares of lvs before the jump. This is how I gamble. Keep it a year and sell . It can't go much lower.

[jones]

Welcome to the world of politics and how the stock market game is played. Inflated reports and favors returned for favors given. Money will corrupt the best and the weakest. it's always been that way and if there is any change in sight please let me know because I don't see any.

We won't have long to wait to see if Corbett was in on the game or an honest cop. If there is anything he is connected with in the many scandals going on the bonus gate crowd, gaming commission and BIE will be looking for a way to cut him off at the pass.

[Margaret Langouer]

I moved with my sister and her handicapped husband after retiring to Pa. because taxes were much lower then NJ, just received my School tax bill for Wayne County 2008-2009 and it is 4 time as much as last year, how is this possible??? Why, there are no new schools yet.