HARRISBURG — The debate over property tax cuts sputtered to a halt
Wednesday in the state House of Representatives, bogged down in a
familiar dispute over how many homeowners should benefit.
1/30/2008
By MARTHA RAFFAELE
The Associated Press
The House ended its session in the afternoon without revisiting the
tax cut debate that has dominated House action this week.
House Democrats have placed a property tax cut bill high on their
election-year agenda, even as Gov. Ed Rendell’s administration has
stressed that slot-machine gambling revenue will deliver tax cuts to
homeowners — and workers who pay Philadelphia’ s wage tax — in the
2008-09 fiscal year.
Democratic leaders criticized a plan that was overwhelmingly approved
Tuesday to dedicate the slots money — an estimated $1 billion a year —
exclusively to tax breaks for lower-income senior citizens. The
measure needs another favorable vote to be sent to the Senate, and
other amendments are awaiting consideration.
The plan sponsored by Rep. John M. Perzel of Philadelphia, a veteran
Republican floor strategist, undercut a proposal that would have
given all homeowners lower property taxes in exchange for higher
sales and income taxes.
Perzel’s amendment would provide full tax cuts for seniors with
household incomes of as much as $40,000 but would not reduce taxes
for about 2.7 million families now on track for such reductions.
Rep. David Levdansky, chairman of the House Finance Committee, said
Perzel’s measure also ran counter to the promise of lower taxes for
all Pennsylvanians that was embedded in the 2004 state law that
legalized slots.
“The property tax reform train needs two rails: It needs to both
provide assistance to seniors, and it needs to help provide
assistance for everybody else,” said Levdansky, D-Allegheny. “John
Perzel’s amendment derailed the train last night.”
Republicans said they were disappointed that no further debate would
take place. They defended Perzel’s proposal as a remedy that would
provide tax cuts to the neediest homeowners without raising taxes.
“Maybe (the Democrats) feel that because it’s our idea, not theirs,
they’re kind of embarrassed, ” said Rep. Mario Civera of Delaware
County, the ranking Republican on the House Appropriations Committee.
Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi, R-Delaware, said Perzel’s
plan was worth considering.
“I think the concept is fundamentally sound,” Pileggi said.
It was unclear when the House might take up the measure again,
although House Majority Leader Bill DeWeese said Democratic leaders
would try to negotiate a compromise with their GOP counterparts.
“The debate will be ongoing,” said DeWeese, D-Greene.
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