Why Pennsylvania Needs Property Tax Reform

Pennsylvanians should not live in fear of losing a home because government continually raises taxes on property they already own.

Property-tax reform must do more than provide another temporary rebate. It must deliver substantial, measurable, and lasting relief while protecting schools, public safety, infrastructure, and other essential services.

My plan starts with spending discipline, audits, efficiency, structural reform, and accountability. It protects homeowners, renters, family farms, small businesses, seniors, disabled residents, qualifying veterans, surviving spouses, low-income households, and Pennsylvanians facing genuine financial hardship.

And it establishes one basic rule:

Tax relief must be real. It cannot be quietly taken back through reassessments, substitute fees, hidden charges, or an equal burden somewhere else.

THE CORE TARGETS

50% REDUCTION IN SCHOOL PROPERTY TAXES WITHIN THREE YEARS

• Year 1: 20% cumulative reduction
• Year 2: 35% cumulative reduction
• Year 3 and thereafter: 50% cumulative reduction

AT LEAST 33% REDUCTION IN COVERED COUNTY, MUNICIPAL, AND OTHER LOCAL PROPERTY TAXES WITHIN FIVE YEARS

• Year 1: 7%
• Year 2: 14%
• Year 3: 21%
• Year 4: 28%
• Year 5 and thereafter: at least 33%

These reductions are measured against certified baselines. They are minimum targets, not ceilings. Faster or deeper relief may be provided when fiscally sustainable.

WHAT THIS PLAN WILL DO

This reform will:

• Deliver an equal base percentage reduction across taxable real property within the affected tax category and jurisdiction.

• Provide additional lawful relief for qualifying homesteads, farmsteads, family farms, seniors, disabled homeowners, qualifying veterans, surviving spouses, low-income households, renters, small businesses, and severe-hardship cases.

• Protect owner-occupied primary residences from forced tax sale solely because of genuine financial inability to pay.

• Protect qualified family farms, working agricultural land, and necessary farm structures.

• Protect renters and commercial tenants from improper property-tax pass-through charges.

• Control government spending before relying on broad-based replacement taxes.

• Create protected property-tax relief funding and anti-diversion safeguards.

• Limit future property-tax growth after the required reductions.

• Protect essential education, public-safety, infrastructure, judicial, and human-service functions.

• Establish statewide assessment, reassessment, appeal, and taxpayer-protection standards.

• Protect surplus equity when property is sold for delinquent taxes.

• Distinguish genuine hardship from neglect, speculation, abandonment, and dangerous property conditions.

• Increase accountability for large institutions, tax-exempt property, subsidies, data centers, and large-load users.

• Require independent audits, public reporting, enforcement, and a statewide property-tax dashboard.

• Pursue stronger constitutional protections where needed without delaying statutory relief that can begin immediately.

1. CUT SCHOOL PROPERTY TAXES BY 50% WITHIN THREE YEARS

School property taxes are one of the largest property-tax burdens facing Pennsylvania taxpayers.

The reform establishes a binding cumulative reduction schedule:

• 20% in Year 1
• 35% in Year 2
• 50% in Year 3 and every year thereafter

The reduction is measured against a certified payable baseline established before implementation.

The baseline cannot simply be manipulated to make promised relief appear larger than it really is.

Every taxable parcel must receive the required base percentage reduction. A reduction in overall collections does not count if individual taxpayers fail to receive the relief they were promised.

Property-tax bills would clearly show the certified baseline, assessed and taxable value, millage, required reform percentage, existing relief, enhanced relief, final amount due, dollar savings, percentage savings, and a method for disputing the calculation.

This is not a vague statewide target.

The relief must reach the individual taxpayer.

2. CUT COVERED LOCAL PROPERTY TAXES BY AT LEAST 33% WITHIN FIVE YEARS

Property taxes do not stop with school districts.

Counties, municipalities, libraries, fire protection, EMS, special districts, public safety, infrastructure, human services, and other local governmental purposes can also rely on recurring property taxes.

The reform establishes a minimum cumulative reduction schedule for covered county, municipal, and other local property-tax liabilities:

• 7% in Year 1
• 14% in Year 2
• 21% in Year 3
• 28% in Year 4
• At least 33% in Year 5 and every year thereafter

Nothing prevents a community from reaching the target sooner or providing deeper relief.

The goal is not to dismantle essential local services.

The goal is to lower the taxpayer burden while requiring honest budgeting, spending discipline, shared services where practical, audits, improved procurement, and fiscal accountability.

Mandatory fees or charges created primarily to replace reduced property taxes would be treated as circumvention rather than legitimate relief.

3. PROTECT HOMEOWNERS AND PEOPLE FACING GENUINE HARDSHIP

A home is more than a taxable asset.

For an owner-occupied primary residence, the reform establishes an Owner-Occupied Home Tax Security Guarantee.

An owner-occupied primary residence would not be subject to forced sale solely because the owner is genuinely financially unable to pay property taxes.

Before a tax-sale proceeding could move forward, required protections would include:

• Clear and timely written notice
• A complete statement of taxes, interest, penalties, and fees
• An opportunity to dispute the amount
• Mandatory hardship review
• An affordable payment-plan option
• An opportunity to cure the delinquency
• Access to available deferral, rebate, credit, and assistance programs
• Independent administrative review
• Judicial review before forced sale
• Protection of lawful surplus equity

Long-term or permanent deferral protections may be established for qualifying seniors, permanently disabled homeowners, qualifying disabled veterans, surviving spouses, low-income homeowners, people facing severe medical, employment, caregiving, or economic hardship, and other owner-occupants facing excessive property-tax burdens relative to income.

For qualifying homeowners, deferred taxes may remain as a limited lien and be collected later through lawful events such as sale, transfer, refinancing where sufficient equity exists, termination of qualifying occupancy, or estate settlement.

These protections do not excuse fraud, abandonment, deliberate concealment, or willful refusal by someone with the demonstrated ability to comply with a lawful and affordable payment plan.

4. PROTECT FAMILY FARMS AND WORKING AGRICULTURAL LAND

Family farms are homes, businesses, food producers, employers, and part of Pennsylvania's heritage.

The reform protects genuine Pennsylvania farms, farm families, agricultural land, farmsteads, and necessary farm structures from property-tax policies that can pressure working farms toward sale, subdivision, or development.

Qualified agricultural property would receive agricultural-use protections rather than being treated solely according to speculative development value.

The reform also provides:

• Farmstead and family-farm relief
• Agricultural-use assessment protections
• Protections for necessary farm structures
• Hardship and deferral options where authorized
• Due process and appeal rights
• Protections for qualifying family transfers
• Rollback rules where agricultural relief is abused or land is converted from qualifying use

Farmers would have specific appeal rights involving agricultural-use assessment, family-farm status, farmstead relief, structure protection, development-value assessment, rollback taxes, conversion determinations, hardship relief, and related decisions.

Good-faith mistakes would be distinguished from intentional fraud.

5. PROTECT RENTERS AND SMALL BUSINESSES

Renters experience property-tax pressure through housing costs even when the tax bill is sent to the property owner.

The reform therefore includes renter protections while preserving rental supply and treating responsible small landlords fairly.

Those protections may include:

• Direct renter relief where authorized
• Modernized renter rebate or credit programs
• Transparency when owners receive major public property-tax relief
• Protection against falsely attributing rent increases to property taxes
• Complaint and anti-retaliation protections
• Additional protections for seniors, disabled renters, veterans, families with children, and hardship households

Small businesses need similar protection.

Many Pennsylvania businesses lease rather than own their property and may pay property taxes through rent, common-area maintenance charges, triple-net leases, tax escalators, and other pass-through arrangements.

The reform protects commercial tenants from improper property-tax pass-through charges and allows enhanced relief to prioritize genuine small businesses, owner-occupied commercial property, job-producing employers, and small-business tenants.

Large commercial and corporate owners would not receive enhanced relief without measurable public benefit.

6. CONTROL SPENDING BEFORE REPLACING REVENUE

Property-tax reform must be fiscally responsible.

But fiscal responsibility does not mean abandoning relief before examining what government spends.

The reform establishes an order of priority for supporting property-tax reductions:

1. Eliminate waste, fraud, abuse, and improper payments.
2. Make recurring budget reductions that do not impair essential services.
3. Consolidate administration and remove duplicative functions.
4. Reform procurement and expand cooperative purchasing.
5. Restructure debt and refinance where lawful and financially responsible.
6. Address pension and retiree costs consistent with legal obligations.
7. Consolidate facilities and dispose of unnecessary property.
8. Expand shared services and regional cooperation.
9. Redirect existing revenue where legally permissible.
10. Improve collection of taxes already lawfully owed.
11. Review unjustified loopholes, subsidies, and exemptions.
12. Capture recurring revenue generated through economic growth.
13. Use narrowly tailored replacement-revenue measures where necessary.
14. Use broad-based tax changes only when needed to close a publicly documented remaining funding gap.

Spending reform and replacement-revenue planning may occur simultaneously, but every dollar of certified recurring savings reduces the amount of replacement revenue otherwise required.

Permanent tax relief cannot be financed with temporary gimmicks such as one-time surpluses, asset sales, or nonrecurring grants.

7. GUARANTEE REAL NET TAX RELIEF

Cutting one tax while quietly replacing it with another equal or larger burden is not tax relief.

The reform establishes a Net Tax Relief Guarantee.

Pennsylvania would publicly evaluate the combined effect of:

• Property-tax reductions
• Replacement taxes
• Expanded tax bases
• State and local fees
• Service charges
• Assessments
• Rebates
• Credits
• Deferrals
• Other reform-related financial changes

The impact would be separately examined for homeowners, renters, seniors, disabled residents, veterans, families, farms, small businesses, and other major taxpayer groups.

The same revenue source could not be counted toward multiple reforms or funding commitments.

Mandatory fees could not be disguised as replacement property taxes.

Reassessment could not be used solely to recapture the required relief.

And public officials could not advertise gross property-tax relief without also reporting the related replacement-revenue burden.

The measure is net relief, not a political talking point.

8. CREATE RELIEF LOCKBOXES AND STOP BACKDOOR TAX SHIFTS

Money legally dedicated to property-tax relief should remain dedicated to property-tax relief.

The reform establishes protected replacement-revenue and relief accounts with anti-diversion rules.

Government could not evade the reform by:

• Creating substitute property-related fees
• Increasing mandatory fees without documented service justification
• Manipulating assessments or millage
• Shifting costs without corresponding funding
• Relabeling a tax as a charge, assessment, contribution, or service payment
• Moving taxable functions into authorities or special districts to evade limits
• Using ordinary budget pressure as a false emergency
• Diverting protected funds
• Misusing stabilization funds
• Weakening existing relief to fund new relief
• Creating unauthorized substitute local taxes

Violations could trigger corrective orders, audits, financial penalties, recovery of funds, fiscal oversight, withholding of discretionary funding, and other lawful enforcement.

Where constitutional protection is needed, the reform specifically allows stronger protection for lockboxes and anti-diversion rules.

9. LIMIT FUTURE PROPERTY-TAX GROWTH

A temporary reduction is meaningless if government can simply rebuild the old tax burden later.

After the required reductions are achieved, future property-tax growth would be subject to statutory levy limits.

The default annual levy-growth cap may be set at no more than the lesser of:

• Consumer inflation
• Median household income growth
• A statutory percentage cap, with a default no higher than 2%
• Another taxpayer-protective formula established by law

The reduced post-reform levy, not the old higher pre-reform levy, would become the basis for future caps.

Genuine new construction and newly taxable property could still be added to the tax base, but new construction would be reported separately from reassessment growth, market appreciation, inflation, and administrative manipulation.

School boards, district councils, county education boards, Intermediate Units, authorities, and other local education entities would not possess independent authority to recreate or increase school property-tax burdens.

Increases above lawful limits would be subject to the public-review and taxpayer-approval requirements established by law, with only narrow emergency exceptions.

10. PROTECT SCHOOLS AND ESSENTIAL LOCAL SERVICES

Property-tax relief cannot come at the expense of core public services.

The reform protects adequate and stable funding for essential functions including:

• Classroom instruction
• Special education
• School safety
• Police
• Fire protection
• EMS
• Emergency communications and dispatch
• Courts and required judicial functions
• Roads and bridges
• Essential transportation infrastructure
• Water, sewer, sanitation, and critical public infrastructure
• Legally required human services
• Existing lawful debt and contractual obligations

But essential-service protection does not guarantee continued funding for duplicative administration, excessive management layers, wasteful contracts, unnecessary consulting, underused facilities, patronage, political spending, or programs that cannot withstand independent fiscal review.

Under the coordinated Education Reform, local education officials retain responsibility for using funds lawfully and efficiently, but they cannot simply recreate the removed property-tax burden through another local mechanism.

11. REFORM ASSESSMENTS, REASSESSMENTS, AND TAXPAYER APPEALS

Property-tax relief cannot be real if reassessment immediately wipes it out.

The reform establishes statewide standards for assessments and reassessments.

Countywide reassessment would be revenue neutral in its initial implementation, with millage adjusted accordingly.

For a reassessed parcel, the required property-tax reduction would still be applied to the reform-adjusted comparator.

General appreciation, ordinary inflation, routine maintenance, cosmetic repairs, and reassessment increases on existing property would not be treated as new construction.

Taxpayers would receive clear bill and assessment information and could challenge:

• Certified baseline calculations
• Property classification
• Required reduction calculations
• Existing relief treatment
• Enhanced-relief eligibility
• Reassessment comparator calculations
• New-construction classifications
• Suspected circumvention fees
• Other determinations affecting their relief

Appeals would include administrative and independent review, judicial review, reasonable deadlines, access to relevant records, and protection against retaliation.

12. MAKE TAX SALE A LAST RESORT AND PROTECT SURPLUS EQUITY

The reform strengthens due process before property can be lost over delinquent taxes.

Owner-occupied homeowners experiencing genuine hardship receive the specific protections established under the Home Tax Security Guarantee.

The broader reform also preserves notice, appeal, payment, deferral, and hardship protections for covered property and requires lawful procedures before forced sale.

If property is ultimately sold for delinquent taxes, the government cannot simply keep value beyond the lawful obligation.

Lawful surplus equity belongs to the property owner.

Taxpayer standing and enforcement provisions specifically allow challenges involving improper tax sales and improper retention of surplus equity.

13. PROTECT HARDSHIP WITHOUT PROTECTING NEGLECT OR SPECULATION

The reform distinguishes people who genuinely need help from owners who allow properties to become dangerous, abandoned, or chronically neglected.

Policy would distinguish among:

• Genuine poverty, age, disability, and temporary hardship
• Ordinary cosmetic conditions
• Willful neglect by someone able to act
• Negligent rental-property ownership
• Institutional or speculative neglect
• Vacant, abandoned, blighted, or dangerous property

For owner-occupied homes involving genuine hardship, assistance, repair, rehabilitation, and preservation come before displacement or punitive enforcement.

No property would be seized or forced into sale merely because of minor appearance, ordinary wear, or cosmetic conditions.

Landlords, institutional owners, speculators, and owners who knowingly allow occupied property to remain dangerous may face stronger compliance, tenant-protection, receivership, repair-lien, and enforcement measures.

Vacant, unsafe, blighted, or speculative commercial properties would not receive enhanced tax relief without a lawful reuse, repair, redevelopment, or occupancy plan.

14. HOLD LARGE INSTITUTIONS, CORPORATE BENEFICIARIES, DATA CENTERS, AND SPECIAL DEALS ACCOUNTABLE

The reform does not treat a neighborhood church, food bank, youth organization, shelter, veterans group, or small charity the same as a major institutional landholder.

Large tax-exempt institutions, hospitals, health systems, universities, colleges, authorities, quasi-public entities, major institutional property holders, and commercial operations inside exempt structures would face stronger transparency and accountability standards.

Public reporting may include:

• Tax-exempt property holdings
• Major institutional property
• Commercial use
• PILOT agreements
• Service-impact payments
• Municipal-service costs
• Community-benefit claims and credits
• Land banking
• Affiliate and related-entity relationships where legally permitted

For commercial and industrial property, enhanced relief would favor genuine small businesses, job-producing employers, responsible property owners, and productive operations rather than politically connected developments or speculative holdings.

Data centers and large-load users would not receive enhanced property-tax relief, special abatements, local giveaways, or public subsidies without meeting strict impact and community-benefit standards.

Special tax deals, subsidies, abatements, and incentives would be transparent, measurable, and subject to clawbacks.

15. AUDIT THE SYSTEM AND PUT THE RESULTS IN ONE PUBLIC PLACE

Property-tax reform fails if taxpayers cannot verify what government actually did.

All baselines, relief calculations, replacement revenue, enhanced assistance, debt allocations, implementation milestones, and corrective actions would be subject to independent audit.

A statewide public dashboard would allow Pennsylvanians to see information such as:

• Certified baseline collections
• Required reduction milestones
• Actual relief delivered
• Relief by county, municipality, and property category
• Replacement revenue
• Government spending savings
• Administrative costs
• Debt and pension obligations
• Enhanced relief
• Assessment and reassessment information
• Audit findings
• Corrective-action plans
• Estimated net taxpayer impact
• Missed milestones
• Institutional and subsidy information
• Other implementation and enforcement information required by law

Personally identifiable and legally protected information would remain protected.

Taxpayers should not have to search through dozens of disconnected reports to determine whether reform worked.

16. REQUIRE CORRECTIVE ACTION WHEN GOVERNMENT MISSES THE TARGETS

The property-tax targets are not suggestions.

Failure to meet a required reduction milestone would automatically trigger public notice, independent fiscal review, performance audit, spending review, revenue analysis, debt review, corrective-action planning, and a public implementation hearing.

The responsible government entity would have to explain:

• Why the target was missed
• How much relief was not delivered
• What administrative and nonessential spending can be reduced
• What reserves are available
• What procurement or consolidation opportunities exist
• How the missing relief will be restored
• When compliance will be achieved
• How the failure will be prevented from happening again

Corrective relief could include taxpayer credits, rebates, later bill reductions, recovery of improperly spent funds, required spending reductions, replacement funding, or other lawful mechanisms.

Essential services would not be endangered as punishment for government failure.

If the Commonwealth itself fails to provide legally required funding, local taxpayers should not be made to absorb that failure.

17. BUILD A RESPONSIBLE TRANSITION

A reform this large must be phased in responsibly.

Replacement funding must be recurring and reliable rather than dependent on temporary surpluses or one-time money.

The reform provides for stabilization mechanisms to protect essential services and address legitimate temporary fiscal disruptions.

Where revenue or implementation underperforms, government must first examine spending, collections, waste, fraud, reserves, procurement, debt, and corrective actions rather than automatically restoring property taxes.

Where revenues outperform expectations, excess resources can be directed toward deeper relief, taxpayer credits, stabilization, debt reduction, or other purposes consistent with the reform.

The transition must protect taxpayers and essential services without creating a permanent excuse for delay.

18. STRENGTHEN THE REFORM WITH CONSTITUTIONAL PROTECTIONS WHERE NEEDED

Statutory relief should begin wherever Pennsylvania can lawfully act now.

Constitutional amendments should strengthen the reform, not delay it.

Where necessary, Pennsylvania should pursue constitutional protection for:

• Core property-tax relief targets
• School-property-tax reduction guarantees
• County and municipal reduction guarantees
• Property-tax relief lockboxes
• Anti-diversion protections
• Levy limits
• Taxpayer-approval requirements
• Owner-occupied home protections
• Surplus-equity protections
• Replacement-revenue dedication
• Transparency requirements
• Anti-circumvention rules

The objective is to make lasting taxpayer protections harder for future officials to quietly undo.

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR PENNSYLVANIA

For homeowners:
Measurable property-tax relief, clearer bills, stronger appeal rights, protection against reassessment manipulation, hardship safeguards, and protection against hidden tax replacement.

For seniors, disabled residents, veterans, surviving spouses, low-income homeowners, and hardship households:
Access to enhanced protections and lawful relief programs beyond the equal base reduction.

For family farms:
Equal base relief plus agricultural-use protections, farmstead and family-farm safeguards, due process, and protection against speculative-development-based tax pressure.

For renters:
Recognition that property taxes contribute to housing costs, additional targeted relief where authorized, and greater transparency and accountability when landlords receive major public relief.

For small businesses:
Equal base relief for taxable property, enhanced relief where authorized, protection against improper commercial tax pass-through charges, and greater accountability for special deals favoring large corporations.

For schools and local communities:
Protection of essential services while requiring stronger fiscal discipline, transparency, audits, procurement reform, and accountability.

For every taxpayer:
Independently measurable relief, public reporting, appeal rights, anti-circumvention rules, spending controls, audits, enforcement, and a public record showing whether government actually delivered what it promised.

BOTTOM LINE

Pennsylvania does not need another temporary rebate that disappears when the next tax bill arrives.

It needs substantial, measurable, lasting property-tax relief.

This reform:

Cuts school property taxes by 50% within three years.

Cuts covered county, municipal, and other local property taxes by at least 33% within five years.

Protects homeowners, family farms, renters, small businesses, seniors, disabled residents, qualifying veterans, surviving spouses, low-income households, and Pennsylvanians facing genuine hardship.

Protects essential services while forcing government to control spending and justify what it spends.

Prevents promised relief from being erased by reassessment, disguised fees, hidden taxes, diversion, or accounting games.

And after the binding targets are reached, Pennsylvania will continue pursuing deeper school-property-tax reductions, with the long-term objective of eliminating school property taxes on qualifying owner-occupied homesteads and family farms when recurring funding, essential services, debt obligations, reserves, and genuine net taxpayer relief can all be responsibly protected.

Keep people in their homes. Protect family farms. Cut the burden. Stop the games. Hold government accountable.