Forbes decries weak will in legislature

Property tax still the main way to fund schools

By TOM KANE

MILFORD, PA — Pike County Commissioner Harry Forbes is annoyed with the Pennsylvania Assembly.

Forbes, who watched the Assembly’s final session on television November 21 before it broke for Thanksgiving holiday, bemoaned that the legislators did not adopt new legislation that would reform the way schools are financed. And he made his views known at the end of the weekly commissioners’ meeting on November 22.

“The assembly, as well as the senate, has to wake up to what the people want,” Forbes said. “We hear it all the time. People are hurting from the rising school taxes. Many people are literally losing their homes because they cannot pay the taxes.”

He said that several amendments were being offered to the basic legislation that would drop the property tax as the principal way to finance schools and supplant it with a combination of increases in sales tax and the state income tax. Because the legislators could not agree, the bill was dropped.

“Citizens need to let their legislators know how they feel about this—the same way that they reacted when the state legislature voted to up their salaries,” he said.

In June of this year, members of the Senate and the Assembly voted to give themselves raises ranging from an increase of 16 percent to 54 percent. The voters rose up in protest to the extent that the legislation, which had already been signed by the governor was repealed on November 16.

“If the people don’t react strongly, the legislators don’t pay attention,” Forbes said.

He said he personally backed the amendment by Representative Mario Scavello from Monroe County.

“Scavello would cut property taxes between 33 percent up to 75 percent, depending on the school district,” Forbes said. “He would keep the sales tax at 6 percent but extend such a tax to utility payments, many personal services and entertainment purchases. This seems to me to be a good solution.”

Forbes hopes that the assembly and the senate will take up the matter at the next session.

“They have to listen to the people,” he said.