Pennsylvania headed toward tax explosion?
April 30th, 2007 by Brendan SteinhauserThe Allentown Morning Call has a piece on the tax and spend politicians in Pennsylvania.
Here is the piece.
Here is an excerpt:
Gov. Ed Rendell’s budget plan, which includes a series of tax hikes to shore up the state budget and expand programs, would continue Pennsylvania’s path from a low-tax to a high-tax state. If his budget passes, Pennsylvanians next year likely would pay more in state and local taxes than the average American for the first time in at least 38 years.
The trend underscores changes that are redefining Pennsylvania’s political foundation and its government’s reach into pocketbooks. The change can’t be attributed to any single cause. Instead, it’s been a response to demographics and government spending.
Haycock Township resident Helen Kondracki, 74, is struggling to pay the growing burden.
She worries rising taxes could force her out of the house she and her husband built in Bucks County more than 30 years ago. They get by on their pensions and Social Security, but taxes take more of that money every year. Most of their retirement income is exempt from state income taxes, but rising property tax bills are taking a toll.
When adjusted for inflation, her property tax climbed 73 percent to $4,016 in the 20 years up to 2006. Personal incomes in Pennsylvania over that time rose 34 percent.
”My taxes are like a tsunami, the way the rates have gone up,” Kondracki said. ”We’re falling further and further behind.”
