Harrisburg, the time has come! Since the 24-24 tie vote in 2015 to eliminate school property taxes through HB76/SB76, Harrisburg has continued to drag its feet.

We, the property owners, continue to pay more and more each year, so why does this “regressive” tax burden continue to stay on the same path? If Harrisburg does not resolve this problem soon, I will use the phrase from Mark Madden, “I’ve got some bad news.” Simply it will never allow the homeowners the peace of mind they deserve.

Why not, Harrisburg? One reason comes to my mind, leadership. All in Harrisburg are aware of the problem, but over the past 20 years several so-called fixes, words like reform and reduce, were tossed around by all, but we the people call it “leadership.” One of the most misleading fixes was the revenues generated by gambling.

In 2004 it was sold to the people by the governor that the revenues generated by gambling would give relief to the school taxes, but never really gave the relief expected. So property owners continue to deal with increases year after year. The sad part of this regressive tax is the school district has the power to take your home.

Whether you lose your job, family members get sick and cannot generate income or senior citizens on fixed income who cannot keep up with those increases. Back in November, we the people were asked by Harrisburg through a voter referendum the question: yes or no to change the constitution to increase the homestead exclusion up to 100 percent elimination. The question has been answered YES, so now it is time for Harrisburg to fix the problem with the antiquated property tax system. The only fix is SB76 to eliminate funding through property taxes for education. The time is “NOW,” Harrisburg, to fix the problem once and for all.

Byron Schnell

Lehighton