Action Item

06 September 2007

Dear Friends,

The Pennsylvania General assembly will be re-convening on September 17 and we need to encourage the House leadership to begin action on the School Property Tax Elimination Act of 2007.

** ACTION ITEM **

As soon as possible, please call or write to Representative William DeWeese (House Majority Leader) and Representative Keith McCall (House Majority Whip) and urge them to issue a co-sponsorship letter for the bipartisan School Property Tax Elimination Act of 2007 (SPTEA) and to introduce the bill as quickly as possible. The letters should be respectful and non-threatening, and should voice your wholehearted support for the SPTEA and for those who help to have the bill enacted. Thank them for their efforts! Please do not use form letters, but instead write a personalized letter and – this is important - use business titles with your signature if applicable.

If you have first-hand knowledge of any of the recent HB 1600 hearings, please don’t be afraid to mention that you have seen the negative reactions to HB 1600 and that you do not support it in any manner. If you need more information about HB 1600 it is available here: http://mysite.verizon.net/drbsr/PTCCWeb/arc082407.htm

Contact information for these two Representatives is below. A letter from the Pennsylvania Coalition of Taxpayer Associations (PCTA) to these leaders is also copied below for your reference.

The PTCC and PCTA cannot express enough the urgency of this item, so please help if you can and encourage as many of your friends as possible to do so as well.

My thanks in advance for all of your help.

Please write to me at pataxpayers@gmail.com if you have any questions or concerns.

NOW is the time to eliminate school property taxes and we WILL get this done!

David Baldinger
PTCC Administrator

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Hon. H. William DeWeese
222 Elm Drive
Suite 101, P.O. Box 832
Waynesburg, PA 15370
(724) 627-8683
Fax: (724) 627-6043
wdeweese@pahouse.net

Hon. Keith R. McCall
162 West Ridge Street
Lansford, PA 18232
(570) 645-7585
Fax: (570) 645-9526
kmccall@pahouse.net

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04 September 2007

Dear Representatives DeWeese and McCall,

This morning on the Feedback show on WEEU, Reading, Representatives Thomas Caltagirone, Sam Rohrer, and David Kessler were guests to discuss property taxes.

Representatives Caltagirone and Rohrer both were adamant about school property tax elimination while Representative Kessler insisted that HB 1600 was preferable and another "first step". The result was as definitive as it was predictable: Without exaggeration, fully one hundred percent of the callers supported elimination while many disparaged both HB 1600 and Representative Kessler’s support of this measure.

The results of the House Finance Committee hearings on HB 1600 last week in Berks and Bucks Counties were similar. Both hearings had a large turnout of voters and witnesses who favor elimination, with very few, if any, supporters for HB 1600.

As a spokesperson for the twenty-one member groups of the Pennsylvania Coalition of Taxpayer Associations (PCTA), I am respectfully requesting on behalf of the PCTA that you issue a co-sponsorship memorandum for the bipartisan School Property Tax Elimination Act of 2007 as soon as possible so that the bill may be introduced in a timely fashion for the beginning of the September session of the House of Representatives.

The PCTA and our more than fifteen thousand members fully support the School Property Tax Elimination Act of 2007 and, further, will also fully support any House member who will help to advance this legislation.

In recent newspaper articles and in e-mail releases by the House Democratic Caucus you both, as leaders, have indicated your support for school property tax elimination. Please continue to maintain this support and to do all that is possible to aid the passage of this bill for the benefit of all Pennsylvania homeowners and schoolchildren.

The courtesy of a reply would be appreciated.

Very truly yours,

David Baldinger
Administrator, Pennsylvania Taxpayers Cyber Coalition
Member, Pennsylvania Coalition of Taxpayer Associations