11/03/2026
The effort to find a better way to fund public education has gone on for decades. Every proposal so far has failed.
Most proposals never even see a vote. In 2015, the PA Liberty Alliance, with the help of other grassroots folks and groups, successfully got a vote on total school property tax elimination in the Pennsylvania Senate.
We put in tens of thousands of man hours knocking on doors, walking the Capitol halls talking to legislators, interacting with lobby groups, and doing presentations in every area of the state.
That vote ended in a tie. Then-Lt. Gov. Mike Stack-D cast the deciding “no” vote...and then laughed about it.
Since then, no legislation has received a full floor vote in either the House or the Senate.
People continue to struggle with this egregious tax. Worse still, people continue to lose their homes.
Some seniors are still being forced to sell their long-paid off homes, as ever-increasing property taxes continue to eat away at their fixed income.
Working families continue to struggle to pay this tax. Would-be first time homebuyers may be able to afford the home, but the addition of the property tax makes home ownership unreachable for too many.
The biggest reason these proposals have failed, is unfortunately, opposition from large, well-funded lobbyists like the teachers’ unions, The Chamber of Commerce, Americans for Prosperity, and several others.
Just as the support for school property tax elimination is bi-partisan, so is the opposition.
Many of the arguments and disagreements take place over the replacement taxes, and how to fund schools without a property tax.
After decades of not getting anything signed into law, should we be considering alternative plans in order to help our struggling homeowners and seniors?
Nine years ago, voters decided to amend the State Constitution to raise the Homestead/Farmstead exclusion to 100%, meaning we could eliminate school property taxes for our primary residences only.
Prior to this amendment, any legislation to eliminate the property tax would have had to apply to all properties, including commercial, second homes, etc.
The replacement revenue (replacement tax/taxes) to eliminate for Homesteads/Farmsteads would be approximately 58% or less of that required to eliminate for every property. A very significant reduction.
Because people are still struggling with constantly increasing property taxes, and seniors and others continue to lose their homes at sheriff’s sales every year, the PA Liberty Alliance is currently considering writing and supporting legislation to eliminate school taxes for primary residences.
At this time, there are no bills that we are aware of that would accomplish this while also laying out how the schools would be funded in the future.
We believe this could be accomplished with only modest increases to the income tax and sales tax, and we are also looking into other existing and new sources of state revenue to be used for property tax elimination.
WE DO NOT NEED A TAX ON RETIREMENT TO DO THIS.
A lot of work and discussion will need to take place to determine what the replacement tax/taxes would be. For now, we are interested in where the public stands on this idea, and getting their thoughts on how to fund public education going forward.
Please take a minute to vote in our poll on our page to let us know what you think.
For Liberty,
Ron Boltz
Pennsylvania Liberty Alliance
