Aio-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, May 7, 1994
OPINION
Tax Reform Needed
With local tax reform a hot issue in the political debates now
in progress we list several basic ideas that should be
considered.
• School districts should be given the authority to impose a
flat rate incbme tax and real property tax; should have the dis
cretionary authority to decide the tax rate and the proportionate
share of total tax revenues originating from income taxation
and property taxation.
• the current statutory cap in the rate of earned income taxa
tion should be eliminated, provided current real property tax
revenues are reduced by any additional revenues from the high-
er rate
• Nuisance taxes, including occupation taxes, should be
eliminated.
• The county personal property tax should be eliminated.
• All taxing districts should be required to obtain prior
approval by voter referendum to raise taxes or incur debt bey
ond a fixed percentage of the current tax base.
Although several bills in the hopper to reform the local taxa
tion system, House Bill 2202 has received considerable atten
tion and action. An amended version of H.B. 2202 passed
House of Representatives. It authorizes municipalities, school
districts and counties to adopt an optional local taxation form,
authorized under current law. Taxing entities opting for the
new taxation form can not have any intangible personal proper
ty tax, flat rate or assessed value occupation tax, occupational
privilege tax, per capita tax, earned income tax or any current
tax permissible under the Local Tax Enabling Act.
Counties could approve either a one-percent sales and use
and hotel occupancy tax or a half percent personal income tax.
A county that chooses a county personal income tax could not
impose the county sales and use and hotel occupancy tax.
The one percent sales and use and hotel occupancy tax, if
adopted by a county, would be collected like the state sales tax.
The sales merchant would make payment to the Department of
Revenue. These tax revenues would be distributed monthly to
the county and to municipalities and school districts, adopting
an ordinance in support of the county lax. The revenues would
be divided on a formula of 50 percent to the county, 25 percent
to municipalities and 25 percent to school districts.
Counties could not reap a windfall in revenues in the first
year of a new sales and use tax and hotel occupancy tax. All
new revenues exceeding 105 percent of the previous year’s
revenues, under the old taxation system, would be used to
replace revenues lost by taxes eliminated and then to propor
tionately reduce county real property taxes. Municipalities and
school districts, receiving county sales tax revenues, would be
required to use the monies to replace revenues lost by taxes eli
minated, and then to proportionately reduce real property taxes.
Municipalities and school districts would be authorized to
impose a personal income tax at a rate of up to one percent for
municipalities and up to two percent for school districts. Again
revenues collected by a municipality or school district exceed
ing the 105 percent threshold would be distributed in the same
manner as excess revenues from the county sales tax and the
use and hotel occupancy tax.
A municipality would also have the option to impose a mun
icipal services tax of up to $lO on all persons employed within
the municipality.
A county, municipality or school district, opting for the new
authority, could not increase any local tax rates (including real
property taxes) without voter approval in a referendum. There
would be some exceptions to this rule. The tax rate can be
increased in response to a state emergency declared by the
Governor, to carry out a court decision; to pay interest on local
indebtedness incurred under the Local Government Unit Debt
Act; to meet pension fund requirements; and to respond to a
municipality or school district found "distressed” under applic
able laws.
Once a taxing body has this new taxing system in operation
for at least three years, it may elect by voter referendum to
revert to the taxing authority provided in the current Local Tax
Enabling Act. This proposed legislation would authorize a tax
ing district to allow tax deferrals of real property tax increases
on homestead property owned by low-income residents. The
total deferral allowance could be up to 85 percent of the home’s
market value, if unencumbered, or 70 percent of market value,
if it is encumbered. Taxing districts would be authorized to cre
ate local tax study commissions to make non-binding recom
mendations to the governing body.
Certainly a shift from property taxes to a system of taxes to
be supported by the general population would be more accept
able to owners of family farms.
To Evaluate
Starter Fertilizer
Many farmers are debating the
benefits of starter fertilizer on
com.
Limestone soils which have
been receiving regular applica
tions of manure rarely see benefits
of starter fertilizer in com planted
after May 1. No-till fields which
are usually colder may benefit
from a starter fertilizer.
The phosphorus level in the soil
seems to be the key factor. If your
phosphorus level is in the optimum
or higher levels, you most likely
will not need a starter fertilizer.
Also, if you are continually fer
tilizing your fields with manure,
you should wait to early June to
determine if you need additional
nitrogen. By using the nitrogen
soil test, you will be able to deter
mine if additional nitrogen is
needed.
By following these test proce
dures, you may reduce fertilizer
costs, apply the nutrients when the
crop may best use them, and pro
tect water quality.
To Use
Buffer Strips
A major chemical company is
promoting a program called
“Operation Greenstrip.”
This program is designed to
encourage the use of grass buffers
along streams and waterways.
These strips help prevent pesti
cides, fertilizers, and manure from
entering streams and waterways.
Research has shown that a
16-foot-wide grass strip along the
edge of fields prevents 80 percent
of pesticides from reaching
streams.
Farm Calendar
Salurdav, Ma\ 7
Md. Sheep and Wool Festival,
Howard County Fairgrounds,
West Friendship, Md., thru
May 8.
Apple Blossom Festival, South
Mountain Fairgrounds, 9
Mund.iN, Ma\ ')
Poultry Management and Health
Seminar, Days Inn, Shamokin
W t'dncMl.iN, M.i\ I I
Pa. Veterinary Nutrition Forum
monthly meeting. Days Inn Air
port Hotel, Harrisburg, 7 p.m.
South Jersey Twilight Meeting,
A.J. Gaventa & Sons Cedarville
Farms, Repaupo, N.J., 6:15
p.m.
Total Quality Management Semi
nar, Holiday Inn, Lionville.
(Turn to Page A 26)
Today, several pesticides are
not permitted to t)e applied within
66 feet of an area where water
enters a stream. You may avoid
stricter regulations and prevent a
major fine by leaving buffer strips
on your farm.
Farming in an urbanizing envi
ronment requires doing things dif
ferently. By practicing some
simple and inexpensive practices
now will create public goodwill
and reduce the need for govern
ment regulation.
Remember, most government
regulations are developed to cor
rect a public concern or perception
i.e. water quality, odor, eye sore,
etc.
To Recycle
Pesticide Containers
The American agricultural
chemical industry is the first indus
try in the nation to be working for
programs to reduce the amount of
packaging material in the waste
stream.
They estimate that in 1994,
recycling programs in 25 states
will collect more than 1.3 million
READ THE WILLI
MayB, 1994
Background Scripture:
Galatians 3:1 - 4:7
Devotional Reading:
1 Corinthians 12:11-33
The newspapers are full of sto
ries of infamous crimes being
committed in our neighborhoods;
senseless drive-by shootings, a
three-year-old girl murdered by
her uncle, a vagrant set on fire by a
gang of youths, a mother hiring
someone to kill the ex-boyfriend
of her jilted daughter, and so on.
Each time I read of one of these
tragic crimes I try to understand
how the guilty persons could have
brought themselves to do these
things. Usually, I cannot
And then, in inner dialogue I
say to myself: “I suppose you’ll
still claim these people are also
children of God?” Often that is
very hard to affirm and I have to
wrestle with it But then I return to
the conviction that yes, these mur
derers, despite their demonic
behavior, are nevertheless child
ren of God but they don’t know
it! And, because they don’t know
it they don’t act like it In fact
they act just the opposite, like sons
and daughters of the Devil.
There is a temptation to believe
that there are essentially two kinds
of people in the world, the good
people and the bad. The good peo
ple are people who do good things
and the bad people similarly do
bad things. In a sense, according
to this belief, we are created diffe
rently and in our lives we just act
out what we are. There was a time
3^,
when many people assumed that
this was just a matter of blood:
good blood lines produced good
people and bad blood lines pro
duced bad people. Today, we
might say that it is a matter of
genetics.
ALL SINNERS!
But that is not the prevailing
view of the Bible which clearly
maintains that all of us are sinners,
all of us fall short of the glory of
God. All of us have the choice of
good and evil virtually every day
of our lives. And none of us go
pounds of plastic containers at
state-approved sites.
To find out if your county is par
ticipating in the program, contact
your local county cooperative
extension office.
The Agricultural Container
Research Council (ACRC) is sup
porting recycling programs across
the nation to collect empty con
tainers and to find other uses for
them. To date, because of the
potential for residues in recycled
materials, most of the plastic col
lected is being utilized in the gen
eration of electricity. As research
finds alternative uses and assesses
the risk of residues, other uses of
the plastic will be found.
To be acceptable for recycling,
plastic containers must be empty,
clean, inspected, uncapped, dry,
with a label on the container. Con
tainers cannot be smashed or cut
up. An empty container is one that
has been triple- or pressure
washed.
Feather Profs Footnote: "It is
impossible to be a totalfailure and
it is impossible to succeed
perfectly.”
through life making all the right
choices. Far from it.
I do not pretend to understand
the criminal mind, but I have had
enough exposure to know that
many of those “bad” people in our
jails share the same opinion of
themselves as we do: they also
believe that they are “no good,”
doomed to live a life of failure and
evil, unable to rise above their
darkest impulses. And because
they believe that, they live it out in
their lives. They fulfill our pro
phecies and their own
expectations.
Many of us who are somewhere
in-between the righteous and the
evil polarities, have the same
problem. We, too, may feel that
we were behind the door when the
halos were passed out, that some
how, although we are not doomed
to evil, neither are we destined to
much good either. We think little
of who we are and we fulfill our
own negative prophecies.
ADOPTION BY GOD
So, all of us need to read and re
read the will to find out who we
are: “But when the time had fully
come, God sent forth his Son, bom
of a woman, bom under the law,
so that we might receive adoption
as sons” (4:4,5). All qf us are
created by God to be his sons and
daughters, but if we do not know
that, we do not live as his children
and our relationship to God is like
a birth certificate in the court
house files and nothing more. The
way we live destroys the natural
relationship.
But the goo<J news is that,
regardless what we’ve done to that
relationship, through the Sonship
of Jesus Christ God is willing to
adopt us as his children. “So
through God you are no longer a
slave, but a son, and if a son then
an heir.” There isn’t a man,
woman or child of us in this world
who cannot be God’s child if we
know-it and respond in faith. We
are all in the will. All we have to
do is claim our inheritance.
Have you?
Lancaster Farming
Established 1955
Published Every Saturday
Ephrata Review Building
1 E. Main St.
Ephrata, PA 17522
by
Lancaster Farming, Inc.
A SHtomtn Entiprtm
Robert G. Campbell General Manager
Event R. Nevewenger Managing Editor
Coeyrtghl teat by Uneaater Farming