Dec 21, 2004 2 min read

I applaud Fayette County Commissioners Zimmerlink and Vicites for saving the county roughly $100,000 per year by adopting flat fees for the collection of real estate taxes. Our legislators in Harrisburg should learn from the commissioners and spend more of their time making government more efficient and less of their time trying to figure out how to raise their salaries and our taxes. For example, take the earned income tax. Pennsylvania should adopt a system of combining local earned income tax filing with state income fax filing. This would save taxpayers the burden of multiple filing and would save municipalities and school districts at least $100 million per year (refer to the Governor’s Center for Local Governments Services at a href=”http://www.inventpa.com/ http://www.inventpa.com/ end

).

I estimate that a statewide saving of $100 million or 5.9 percent of the $570 million in total collections equates to about $700,000 of savings per year for municipalities and school districts in Fayette County (estimate based on 5.9 percent of $12,000,000 in earned income tax collections).

This is seven times the estimated real estate tax savings. And that figure could increase proportionately to any increases in the earned income tax. Why have not the fiscally conservative Republicans, who control the Legislature, done anything to eliminate this unnecessary waste?

I would like to believe that their lack of action isn’t influenced by political contributions. We need to send a message to our legislators: Cut spending through efficiency in government before raising our taxes.

Joe Cocalis

Point Marion