PA Ballot Question to Eliminate Property Tax defunds PA Schools, what about School Nurses?

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I want to know what school nurses think about this. I want to know if anyone knows how this could impact school nursing. It may not be happening in your state, but what if it does in the future?

On November 7, Pennsylvanians will have their (local) municipal elections, that includes our school boards, state house and local judges. This is one that we MUST pay attention to because they are having a special question at the ballot that's asking you if you want to vote to have PROPERTY TAX eliminated, therefore eliminating the way we currently fund ALL public schools. It's important that we vote NO to this question because their flawed plan to fund every school in our state with sales tax will not work. If they don't fund schools properly you will see things get much worse for the future of children in PA, and our society's future as a whole. This has never been done before and there is a reason for that. It doesn't fix the problem, it creates new ones. Don't gamble with the education of our state, please. #VoteNO#BallotQuestion #DoNOTLetThemDefundPASchools

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November 7th Ballot Question: VOTE NO - Action Network

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Specializes in kids.

Wow!! Are these folks by any chance part of the Free State movement? they want to pay for nothing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Please keep us posted!

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Specializes in IMC, school nursing.

My father in Lebanon, Pa. had a specific school tax, but it was a part of his overall property tax. Being a commonwealth, I am surprised this is being proposed, as I would think it borders on illegal when given the state charter.

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I'm not an expert on this stuff but my understanding is because we have R Senate Majority, this is allowed to happen. There are extensive R grassroots efforts that lead to this, I believe they are called PTCA- Pennsylvania Coalition of Taxpayers Association. David Baldinger is their spokes person and has been creating lengthy You-Tube Videos for their argument for elimination of property tax. They want a Sales Tax increase to make it 7% and a Income Tax increase which will be 5% and that is how they want public schools to be paid for now.

(Part of their argument is that the elderly can't afford to pay property tax, therefore we should just abolish it.) I mean SERIOUSLY? How about we reform it, offer some solutions to adjust it, but to just make it not exist, is very extreme!)

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My father in Lebanon, Pa. had a specific school tax, but it was a part of his overall property tax. Being a commonwealth, I am surprised this is being proposed, as I would think it borders on illegal when given the state charter.

Please spread the word, it seems like no one is aware that this is happening or they don't understand that it is happening and it will effect the children in this state. They have a huge campaign to get people to vote yes, so we need to explain and spread the word why they MUST vote NO.

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Specializes in IMC, school nursing.

I live south of the border for 2 reasons. The property taxes negate the cheaper home prices, as much as $7,000 for upper middle class homes and the schools are significantly worse than those in Md. Pennsylvania does, however, make it easy to homeschool. Increasing sales and income taxes makes less sense to me, and I am a conservative. Property taxes are stable, income and sales taxes are economy driven. I would vote against even if I had children in private, it is not fiscally sound. This used to be the platform conservatives had a monopoly on.:banghead:

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I live south of the border for 2 reasons. The property taxes negate the cheaper home prices, as much as $7,000 for upper middle class homes and the schools are significantly worse than those in Md. Pennsylvania does, however, make it easy to homeschool. Increasing sales and income taxes makes less sense to me, and I am a conservative. Property taxes are stable, income and sales taxes are economy driven. I would vote against even if I had children in private, it is not fiscally sound. This used to be the platform conservatives had a monopoly on.:banghead:

Yes, and to be honest, I don't own a home, or have children (yet) so now I am going to pay higher taxes for everything to send everyone else's children to school. That means tourists coming to Philadelphia are paying for everyone's children to go to school, people who work in PA but live in NJ are going to be paying for everyone else's children to go to school, and who decides how much goes to which schools? They haven't provided enough information to the public, and I'm confused because conservatives have been pushing very hard for Charter schools and vouchers, etc. All of the sudden they sneak this in and no one seems to know about it.

I think it's unreasonable, and I'm not even sure if these people are conservative, I think it's a group that is very good at organizing for their agenda. A lot of these people are retired with a lot of time on their hands, they put together a nice plan of action and seem to be getting their way.

I sympathize with these people who are retired, paid off their home but still need to pay property tax that they can no longer afford with their fixed income, but this is not right and not the answer.

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Specializes in OR, Nursing Professional Development.

You do realize that people who don't have children but have to pay property tax... pay for everyone else's children to go to school, right? And that seniors are losing their homes because their fixed social security income doesn't cover the taxes that they pay to send everyone else's kids to school?

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You do realize that people who don't have children but have to pay property tax... pay for everyone else's children to go to school, right? And that seniors are losing their homes because their fixed social security income doesn't cover the taxes that they pay to send everyone else's kids to school?

You do realize that everyone goes to school at some point in their life right? You do realize that we as society have become so self centered that we continue to fail to see that the greater good for our country and society as a whole rests on the foundation of education. If we defund schools we will have a nation full of incompetent people who will be even more reliant on government.

Yes, if you read what I said before, I fully realize that we need to reform school property tax in PA, plenty of other states allow seniors to be exempt...all we need to do is update the property tax law to give veterans, the disabled and the elderly a tax break or exemption. It's not hard to figure out that you are going to hurt these same seniors you are talking about if we raise the Sales tax. How is that helping them? NO sales tax increase, NO elimination of school property tax, Yes to giving seniors who truly can't afford it a School property tax EXEMPTION! Save the schools! Save the Elderly (and everyone else) from paying higher sales tax!

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Specializes in IMC, school nursing.

So the thought behind property taxes paying school tax is that owners have a far more vested interest in an educated populace than the perceived transient renter. This also is the best example of the rich (landowners) paying the lion's share of one of the most expensive state expenditures. Despite being conservative, I agree with that template. I also believe that education is the only way to bring this country back to where it should be. Our founding fathers went against the norm of that time and made it important to educate all the people (with constraints of the time periods). Increasing sales and income taxes penalizes the working poor.

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So the thought behind property taxes paying school tax is that owners have a far more vested interest in an educated populace than the perceived transient renter. This also is the best example of the rich (landowners) paying the lion's share of one of the most expensive state expenditures. Despite being conservative, I agree with that template. I also believe that education is the only way to bring this country back to where it should be. Our founding fathers went against the norm of that time and made it important to educate all the people (with constraints of the time periods). Increasing sales and income taxes penalizes the working poor.

Yes exactly! I just don't understand the argument that the elderly, those with breast cancer who are out of work, disabled. etc can't afford property tax..so their idea is "OK, let's just make them pay a higher sales tax instead!" What the heck is going on my state!?

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