Tax Reform

chambersburg@herald-mail.com CHAMBERSBURG, PA. - The Chambersburg School Board will have to decide by next spring whether it intends to participate in Act 72, the Pennsylvania law passed earlier this year that would shift the funding of schools away from property taxes toward a combination of income taxes and gambling revenues. Districts have to adopt a resolution by May 30, 2005, imposing a new income tax to be eligible for slot machine revenues earmarked for property tax reduction, Business Manager Rick Vensel told the board Wednesday.

CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. - There will be winners and losers in school property tax reform if voters in the Chambersburg Area School District approve a proposal to offset lower real estate tax revenues with higher earned income taxes. The Chambersburg School Board on Wednesday unanimously approved a recommendation by a tax study commission to raise the district's earned income tax from .5 percent to 1.2 percent in the 2007-08 school year, in exchange for a $259 homestead exemption for thousands of qualified homes.

waynesboro@herald-mail.com GREENCASTLE, Pa. - Act 72, a "complicated and controversial" tax reform bill aimed at cutting real estate taxes by raising state income taxes, was explained Thursday night to about 150 residents of the Greencastle-Antrim School District. Pamela M. Price, director of board development for the Pennsylvania School Boards Association, spoke in the elementary school gymnasium. Schools Superintendent P. Duff Rearick said the Pennsylvania General Assembly passed Act 72 to try to "fix a real problem.

chambersburg@herald-mail.com CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. - If property tax reform in Pennsylvania includes a provision for budget referenda, school district residents may find themselves voting on budgets at the same time they are casting ballots for politicians. Chambersburg Area School District Superintendent Edwin Sponseller told the school board Wednesday that a letter about the so-called "back-end budget referendum" the board sent to state legislators recently resulted in several responses.

WAYNESBORO, Pa. - About a dozen residents of the Waynesboro Area School District got an idea Thursday of what Act 1 school property tax reform will mean for them during a public hearing by the district's seven-member tax study commission. If voters approve a tax-shifting plan in the May primary, homeowners can expect a homestead exclusion of at least $309, but for many, that will be more than offset by higher earned income taxes on wages and salaries, or the creation of a broader personal income tax. The hearing was to get input from residents, and no decision has been made as to what nonbinding recommendation on tax shifting will be made to the school board, Commission Chairman Terry Eisenhauer said.

chambersburg@herlad-mail.com CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. - Pennsylvania's Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell came into the heart of Republican territory Thursday, but found a receptive audience among Franklin County senior citizens for his proposals to reduce property taxes and expand the state's prescription drug program. "For 30 years Harrisburg has been talking about property tax reform and nobody has given it to you," Rendell told about 200 people in the Chambersburg Senior Activities Center.

chambersburg@herald-mail.com CHAMBERSBURG, PA. - Legislation legalizing slot machines and providing for tax reform has been signed into law in Pennsylvania, but area school board members and administrators are unsure how much money 61,000 one-armed bandits will return to districts in terms of educational funding and tax relief. "I'm concerned about getting into a situation predicated on people losing money," Chambersburg Area School District Superintendent Edwin Sponseller said Tuesday of funding tax reform through gambling.

chambersburg@herald-mail.com CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. - Time and Pennsylvania politics may soon become factors as the Chambersburg Area School District decides what direction it will take with a long-range master plan. The 45-member task force appointed by the school board to look at future building needs will hold an eighth meeting on Tuesday, June 1, and hear a recommendation from the Mechanicsburg, Pa., architectural firm of Crabtree, Rohrbaugh & Associates regarding what the district should do with its three secondary and 18 elementary schools.

chambersburg@herald-mail.com CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. - The majority of the voters in the 89th District to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives are Republicans, but no GOP candidate could get the better of Democratic state Rep. Jeff Coy during his 11 terms in office. On Tuesday, Republican voters will choose a nominee from a field of three candidates - an attorney, a township supervisor and a businessman - who hope to return the seat to the GOP for the first time in 22 years.

CHARLES TOWN, W.Va. -- Del. John Doyle, D-Jefferson, will attempt to fend off a challenge to his seat in the state Legislature when he faces Republican Betsy Dungan in the Nov. 4 general election. The 57th district represents about 40 percent of the northeastern section of Jefferson County. The term for the office is two years and the salary will be $20,000 starting in January. Doyle Doyle said he wants to return to Charleston, W.Va., to fight for more local control for Jefferson County in a highly centralized state government, and he touts the progress he has worked for such as increased funding for local schools, better land planning laws and tax reform.

Del. John Overington has scheduled two town meetings to gather input from residents. The first will be Saturday from 10 to 11:30 a.m. at the Bedington Ruritan Building, south of Bedington Crossroads on the west side of U.S. 11. The second town meeting will be Feb. 16 from 10 to 11:30 a.m. at the Marlowe Ruritan Building. To reach the Ruritan building, take U.S. 11 to Marlowe Elementary School and turn onto Broad Lane. The Ruritan building is on the right. “This will be my 29th year of holding these meetings at the start of the 60-day legislative session which begins Feb. 13 at noon and concludes on April 13,” Overington, R-Berkeley, said in a news release.

Michael's messages on tax reform seem mixed To the editor: In his column in The Herald-Mail, George Michael used more than 700 words in analyzing the Republicans' loss of the 2012  presidential election, while Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal summarized it in one short sentence, saying that Republicans need to quit being the stupid party. More moderate Republicans are beginning to grasp the meaning of Jindal's statement, but Michael seems to be missing the point.

Del. John Doyle said Thursday he will not seek re-election, a decision that will end a 20-year run in the West Virginia House of Delegates in December 2012. Doyle, 69, of Shepherdstown, was noncommital about his plans other than to say he had other interests he wanted to pursue "while I still have the energy. " He said whatever he gets involved in it will have something to do with the issues that he favored while in the House - tax reform, land use, education and civil liberties.

U.S. Rep. Shelley Moore Capito Tuesday led a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a new access road into the Tabler Station Business Park that's under construction in Berkeley County. The ceremony was held in the main terminal building at the Eastern West Virginia Regional Airport. It was the second of four planned stops on Capito's daylong itinerary in the Eastern Panhandle. The ribbon was cut for Technology Drive, a new primary access road to the east side of the park. It connects U.S. 11 to the recently completed Business Park Drive, formerly Tabler Station Road.

CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. -- The Greater Chambersburg Chamber of Commerce, in partnership with Smith Elliott Kearns and Co., is presenting a workshop about health care legislation tax reform Thursday from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Chamber office, 100 Lincoln Way East in Chambersburg. Joel A. Flinchbaugh, CPA, will discuss small business tax credits for health insurance; Medicare tax increases; medical expense deduction changes; modifications to flexible spending accounts; and increased business reporting requirements.

FANNETTSBURG, PA. -- One of the few contested races for Franklin County, Pa., voters going to the polls for the May 18 primary election will be in the 86th District of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. The 86th District serves Franklin and Perry counties, including parts or all of Fannett, Hamilton, Metal, St. Thomas and Peters townships. Republican Mark Keller has held the seat since he first was elected in 2004. Republican Michael J. Lapp of Newport, Pa., filed to run against Keller, as he did two years ago. Lapp said he took lessons from that failed bid and applied them to this campaign.

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. -- The United States that Grover Norquist envisions is full of freedoms and transparency. Those ideas are tied together, said Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), a nonprofit lobbying organization based in Washington, D.C. Tax increases burden everyday Americans, he said. Governments need to rein in spending, which is less likely to rise if the public is fully informed how tax money is used, Norquist said. ATR is known for its Taxpayer Protection Pledge, a promise to never support or vote for tax increases.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Jack Kemp, the ex-quarterback, congressman, one-time vice-presidential nominee and self-described "bleeding-heart conservative" died Saturday. His spokeswoman Bona Park and longtime friend and former campaign adviser Edwin J. Feulner confirmed that Kemp died after a lengthy illness. Kemp had announced in January 2009 that he had been diagnosed with cancer. He said he was undergoing tests but gave no other detail. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell called Kemp "one of the nation's most distinguished public servants, Jack was a powerful voice in American politics for more than four decades.

CHARLES TOWN, W.Va. -- Del. John Doyle, D-Jefferson, will attempt to fend off a challenge to his seat in the state Legislature when he faces Republican Betsy Dungan in the Nov. 4 general election. The 57th district represents about 40 percent of the northeastern section of Jefferson County. The term for the office is two years and the salary will be $20,000 starting in January. Doyle Doyle said he wants to return to Charleston, W.Va., to fight for more local control for Jefferson County in a highly centralized state government, and he touts the progress he has worked for such as increased funding for local schools, better land planning laws and tax reform.