Protester Pays $7,143 Tax Bill With Singles

Some people protest against taxes by refusing to pay.

Forks Township resident Robert Fernandes took a different approach.

With a camera crew in tow, Fernandes -- who home-schools his three children -- walked into the township offices last week and paid his school property tax bill...using 7,143 one-dollar bills.

"I'm not doing this to make anybody's life more difficult," Fernandes says in a YouTube video of his protest, recorded Aug. 27. "Unfortunately, I wish the same could be said for me and many others whose lives are more difficult for having to pay property taxes."

The township tax collector can be heard telling Fernandes that his gripe is with the school board—which sets the tax rate—rather than the township.

The township wasn't going to count the money there, and said it was taking the cash to the bank.

"I'm not going to count every one-dollar bill," the tax collector says. 

Fernandes said the single bills were an important visual "so people can actually see how much money is being taken from me."

Fernandes and his wife home-school their three children, so he considers the Easton Area schools "a service we don't even use."

Fernandes brought two boxes of doughnuts for "anyone who's inconvenienced."