Ok, after reading the article it looks like the is looking for cases in other states. IANAL, but some of the takes they have on “government overreach” due to the pandemic were interesting. I’ll put this in the coronavirus topic, too:
Some of it is due to reassessments, and some is due to increasing reliance on property taxes for school funding (a bill that always goes up). In PA the process to challenge an assessment involves appraisals, and sometimes that’s not easy for seniors to navigate. Other times, it’s because what used to be an average neighborhood suddenly becomes popular.
The assessment increases benefit the people who want to sell and move away, but not the ones who want to stay. When an older district starts getting an influx of new residents that are mostly families with kids, the costs skyrocket. In my area, that leads to referendums for new schools to be built - because the old ones can’t handle the number of students. Older residents see the handwriting on the wall and vote against it, but in cases where they are outvoted, the vicious tax cycle gets even worse.
In PA seniors with low incomes can file for rebates on taxes, but 5-10% won’t help much against thousands of dollars due every year. There have been several proposals to change from a property tax base to a combination of sales and income tax changes in recent years. Unfortunately, the legislature has always voted against them - probably because of disagreements about benefits and costs for local businesses.
