Originally Posted by moving2philly

Perzel maneuver derails tax plan

Wednesday, January 30, 2008BY CHARLES THOMPSON
Of The Patriot-News
House Democrats' plans to provide deeper school property tax cuts to more Pennsylvania homeowners were thrown off track Tuesday night by an old Republican nemesis.


On a 159-36 vote, members from both parties rushed to back an amendment sponsored by former Speaker John Perzel, R-Philadelphia, that would redirect all proceeds from the state's casino taxes to pay all school tax bills for senior citizen homeowners who have incomes of less than $40,000.


The Perzel amendment would effectively eliminate school property taxes for those 600,000 seniors, but it would provide no cuts for the rest of the state's 3.4 million homeowners.


The hijacking of the Democrats' plan left House Finance Committee Chairman David Levdansky, D-Allegheny, seething about the "ex-speaker's revenge."


"This undoes totally our efforts to provide broad-based tax relief to everyone in the commonwealth," Levdansky argued on the floor.


If it passes, "there will be no property tax relief for anybody else," he warned.


Levdansky's bill, erased by the language of the Perzel amendment, called for boosting the state sales tax to 6.5 percent, and the personal income tax to 3.29 percent.
Levdansky had said the revenue would generate enough money to grant property tax breaks averaging $550 for all homeowners by 2009.


Under law, the slots proceeds would likely only generate average cuts of $99 per homeowner for 2009.


Neither Levdansky nor House Majority Leader H. William DeWeese, D-Greene, could immediately outline a next move Tuesday night, saying they would need a good night's sleep and a full caucus meeting today to find ways to revive their goal of deeper tax cuts.


One option was proposed by Rep. Frank Dermody, D-Allegheny, that would call for the elimination of school property taxes in 2010.


That plan would give lawmakers two years to arrive at replacement funding.


Despite the margin for Perzel's amendment, it was far from certain it will get to Gov. Ed Rendell's desk.


Members on the floor for the vote noted that the final tally was skewed by bandwagon-jumpers who did not want to be seen as casting an anti-senior vote once the Perzel plan garnered a majority.


"Once it got past 102, there was a tidal wave," confirmed Rep. Steve Nickol, R-Hanover.


But some Democrats said they see real merit to the plan.


A top aide to Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi, R-Delaware, said that Perzel's senior-friendly plan would very likely get a "very serious look" in that chamber.


Levdansky and his allies fought vigorously against Perzel's plan, noting it pitted its 600,000 beneficiaries against 2.8 million non-qualifying homeowners.


Perzel and the Republicans said their plan was the only one that had a realistic chance of getting through the Senate, where previous tax-shifting proposals have met with strong resistance from Republicans and Democrats.


"The whole idea of property tax relief in the 30 years that I've been here has been to try to make sure that senior citizens don't lose their homes," Perzel said.


CHARLES THOMPSON: 705-5724 or cthompson@patriot-news.com


©2008 The Patriot-News © 2008 PennLive.com All Rights Reserved.

Originally Posted by seand

Good questions Adam.

Another is how this effects us here where casino money goes to wage tax reduction?

Another is this maybe a preemptive move to kill Rendell's plan for trading state-wide standardization of the curriculum for propertax reductions?

Originally Posted by seand

Another question-

Since the ammount of school property taxes due vary wildly from schoo district to school distirict, isn't this bill sort of like subsidizing seniors to live in upscale areas? I mean if Lower Merion decides to have the highest school property tax in 3 states, doesn't the Perzell bill mean we are de facto subsidizing seniors there a lot more than we would be subsidizing say seniors in Chester-Upland?