Painter Votes ‘No’ on Budget, Cites Rising Local Taxes

Pennsylvania State Representative Mark Painter referenced his experience as the Limerick Township Tax Collector while making remarks regarding this year’s Pennsylvania Budget, as he implored his fellow representatives to vote “no” on the budget bill due to a lack of education funding.

“For the past 15 years, I had the privilege of serving as tax collector in Limerick Township, in my district.” said Painter, as he rose in opposition to House Bill 1437 on June 12, before the budget passed in the body, 108-92.

“Some of the most vivid ones are the times taxpayers came to my office and cried,” Painter said.  “Cried because they didn’t know how they were going to be able to pay their school taxes; they didn’t know how they were going to keep their homes.”

Painter said that, while the Republican budget claims not to increase taxes, he believes that claim will “ring hollow in Limerick Township,” which has received “record-high tax bills” for the seventh straight year.

Painter also said the claim would ring hollow in Stowe, Linfield, New Hanover, Sanatoga, Pottstown, and everywhere else in his district, where “property taxes are going up and education funding is going down.

According to the Pennsylvania Budget and Police Center, this bill, which will serve as a framework for the 2013-2014 final budget,  leaves overall state funding for education below 2008-2009 levels, when adjusted for inflation.  

Drawing on the recent controversy over shale gas in other parts of the state, Painter said that he didn’t have the resource in Southeastern Pennsylvania, but there is “a resource more valuable than shale gas – our young people.”

Painter said that tomorrow’s workforce is today’s public school students; if they are educated and skilled, they will be able to fulfill their potential, make the most of themselves, and “deliver to the rest of us a strong and prosperous economy in 2030."