HB 1776 Tabled in the House Finance Committee

After two hours and forty five minutes of spirited debate and a strong push from sponsor Representative Jim Cox to vote the bill out of committee, HB 1776 was tabled by a vote of 13 to 11.

Despite a majority of Pennsylvanian’s who have a negative view of property taxes, a majority of members of the House Finance Committee believe the Property Tax Independence Act leaves too many questions unanswered and needs to be further reviewed by the Independent Fiscal Office (IFO).  Proponents of tabling the bill encouraged waiting until the IFO’s fiscal analysis was available, and then amending the bill and reporting it to the floor. Rep. Cox, on the other hand, asserted that the Committee has passed bills before that required amendments on the floor before final passage, and urged his colleagues to vote to report the Bill.

Arguments on the merits of the bill remained virtually unchanged from the previous hearing. As you would expect in any conversation about tax policy, a number of members said that while many Pennsylvanians would love to see their property taxes relieved, they aren’t thrilled with the prospect of increased income and sales taxes. Until the IFO can confirm the economic impact of the tax shift, members will not be able to determine how their constituents will be affected. 

Though it is not likely that HB 1776 will resurface this spring, it may not disappear for the session.  Even those who voted in favor of tabling the bill promised to reexamine and resume debate when the IFO fiscal analysis is made available to them. 

 

The Triadvocate is a publication of Triad Strategies, LLC, a bipartisan lobbying, public affairs, strategic communications, grassroots advocacy, issue management consulting firm located in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, with offices in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh

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[Robert Hawk]

Our primary residences should not be a source of tax revenue for any political entity including school districts.
Revenues for political activity should be derived from productive sources such as value added and consumption. If we consume more, we should pay more.
Our homes do not fit either of these.
This is particularily true for senior citizens. We mostly live on fixed income and past savings, which already have been taxed, and income from those sources are taxed.
But as we age our consumption decreases and so should our taxes.Real estate taxes are a serious drain on our resources. They never go down and the homeowner has no control over real estate taxes.
I implore all homeowners to petition the Legislature to move forward and pass HB1776 and free our homes from the burden of real estate taxes

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[Matthew]

Not to mention what really happened: The Chairman was to vote on behalf of Rep Denlinger due to a scheduling conflict, and because of a "miscommunication" the Chairman did not vote the way Denlinger intended, causing the 11-13 outcome. It's all below.

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[Paul Roscoe]

The following representatives on the Finance Committee have received numerous sizeable campaign contributions from the Pennsylvania State Educaction Association which is strongly opposed to the Act. It is no wonder that these representatives voted to table the Act. These representatives are Kerry Benninghoff(R) Tim Briggs(D) Margo Davidson(D) Madeleine Dean(D) Duane Milne(R) Michael Peifer(R)and Mario Scavello(R). The dates and amount of these contributions are available for the public to see at www.campaigncontributions.state.pa.us