Post-mortem on Act 72

A column at PoliticsPA does an excellent job of summarizing the history of Act 72, from the widespread desire for reduced property taxes, through legislative wrangling, to the unwillingness of school boards to give up autonomy for questionable gains.

Property tax relief has been the most elusive policy objective in modern Pennsylvania history. For a generation, candidates for governor have routinely criticized the inequity of the property tax, but none could successfully tame the monster. In the argot of economists, the dilemma was about “ tax shifting”: inevitably the burden of shifting two billion in local property tax revenues to the state meant raising some state tax--either the income or sales--so much that neither a governor nor legislators was willing to gamble on the wrath of the state’s voters.

This column includes discussion of topics that news coverage tends to sidestep, like the moral element to accepting funds from gambling enterprises. Not as long as my summary makes it sound, and very informative.

(via Above Average Jane)