An equitable school funding alternative to property tax

Public schools in this state face any number of problems, from student discipline to staff retention. But, as per usual in the public sphere, the most pressing problem is posed by money.

Pennsylvania school districts fund most of their operations with the often onerous and always unpopular local property tax. Urban and rural schools have dealt with the inequities of that funding for years. Now, as TribLive has noted in recent news stories, so do their suburban counterparts.

School funding as currently configured harbors an inherent vice: The property tax is logically, and systemically, unequal. Higher assessments in affluent districts generate higher revenues, while taxpayers in lower income areas must cover the shortfalls caused by vacant properties and abandoned storefronts. Senior citizens and lower-income residents often struggle to stay in their homes. No district is immune to aggressive reassessments or economic dislocation. Students are privileged or disadvantaged based on the economic base of their hometowns.

There is a solution: replace the local property tax with a statewide sales and income tax to fund all districts on a per capita student basis. Allow districts to assess a property tax solely to pay bonded debt or fund pensions.

Students would receive equal funding, regardless of their residence. School districts could budget with confidence, regardless of their local economic fortunes.

George Hawdon

Arnold

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We need Trump

Former President Trump understands what is important to our nation and also what is destroying it. The left can’t stop talking about him, hoping for any shred of evidence that will emerge and incarcerate him. I believe the Democrats’ wish to win is so paramount that they will stop at nothing, propping up an old man who spent his entire career selling out his own country. We have out-of-control crime, unsecure borders and runaway inflation. It’s all out in the open now. And they are getting desperate.

Suzanne Bakos Wehrli

North Huntingdon

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Biden’s vitality

I listened to an hourlong interview of President Joe Biden by Howard Stern. Stern is one of the finest interviewers around, with a way to bring the subject to a personal perspective similar to Barbara Walters at her best. Biden was on top of his game, illustrating what a humane, intelligent person he is versus the narcissistic individual currently on trial in New York. I wish everyone could have heard this interview. It would have erased any doubts about Biden’s vitality.

Bruce Baker

Youngwood

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Dysfunction in Harrisburg

Our dysfunctional Pennsylvania Legislature is back in session and both chambers are crowing about passing bills on issues long unaddressed. Trouble is, both are refusing to take up the other’s bills.

Three-fourths of the way through our current two-year term, our “full-time” Legislature has written over 3,200 bills but jointly passed just 87, while part-time legislatures in Virginia and Maryland have passed budgets and over 800 bills each and are done.

The study “Dysfunction by Design,” from nonpartisan reform group Fair Districts PA and its affiliate Fix Harrisburg, spotlights why many issues with broad support perpetually go unaddressed — from banning gifts to legislators to creating fair standards for charter school funding.

FDPA/Fix volunteers have spoken to over 47,000 Pennsylvanians about the need for change. They’ve gathered 130,000-plus signatures for reforms, including an independent citizens redistricting commission to take mapping out of the hands of self-interested legislators and reduce the hyper-partisanship that cripples our legislative process. Two-thirds of Pennsylvanians support these changes — that’s bipartisan.

HB 1776 and SB 1076 would create an independent redistricting commission. HB 1776 already has over 40 co-sponsors but leaders, whose power would be threatened, will again block it unless we demand change.

Tell your state representatives to support HB 1776/SB 1076 as co-sponsors. (Our website, www.fairdistrictspa.com, can help you locate them.) Join the fight today, because until this changes, nothing changes — not red, not blue … just fair!

Doug Webster

Monroeville

The writer is a Fair Districts PA/Fix Harrisburg volunteer.

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Dark side of green energy

The average lifespan of a solar panel is only 25 years. Afterwards, does the user have to reinvest in all new panels when all the government grants are gone and the “green energy bubble” has burst?

What happens when these solar companies go under? When millions of burned-out, Chinese-made, solar panels are in our landfills, here are some of the toxins they can leak:

• Cadmium telluride

• Copper indium selenide

• Cadmium gallium

• Copper indium gallium

• Hexafluoroethane

• Lead

• Polyvinyl fluoride

• Silicon tetrachloride

Solar and windmill farms are already a real eyesore. These companies have to post a “rehabilitation bond” to rehab the environment once these facilities are deserted.

If it wasn’t for taxpayer-funded government grants contrived by left-wing politicians beholden to special interest groups, this entire industry, just like the electric car fad, would collapse like a house of cards. What does that tell you?

E. Joseph Biss

Greensburg

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Gun makers’ liability

The editorial “Will Mt. Pleasant boy’s death change federal law?” (April 16, TribLive) on the misuse of a firearm by teenagers resulting in a tragic death correctly states that federal law provides protection to the firearms industry from lawsuits for criminal use/misuse of their legal products and uses an analogy of car manufacturers not being responsible for the actions of drunk drivers using their cars.

However, the editorial wrongly compares holding the firearms manufacturer accountable for its decisions and legal practices to a journalist committing libel, which is a crime. The manufacturer has no legal culpability for third-party misuse of its product; manufacturers are only being sued because they have deep pockets.

The editorial mentions a study by the Annals of Medicine claiming that people are more likely to be injured by a handgun in the home of a lawful owner. The article, which was funded by three anti-gun organizations, specifically states that it could not attribute the injuries to the handgun but just that a handgun was in the house. The report does not address legal gun defensive uses per the CDC showing that the annual number of people using guns for protection ranged from about 64,000 to 3 million.

Mike Sivack

Murrysville

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Why the Pirates are losers

Four reasons why the Pirates are losers:

1. They are poor evaluators of talent. Their first-round picks struggle to make it to the majors.

2. They are poor developers of talent. How do you build up a pitcher’s arm when you only pitch him three innings per outing?

3. They don’t manage well. Derek Shelton is the only person in the world who thinks O’Neil Cruz is a leadoff batter.

4. They don’t spend money to acquire proven talent.

John Kristof

Lower Burrell

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