Aug 9, 2009 5 min read

I read with great interest the editorial “Politics as Usual.” The editor seems to believe that we all, or at least most of us need to have our property values raised in order to be more “equal” on the taxpayer base. Maybe there is some truth to this matter. But the problems I saw with this reassessment far out weighed the benefits. When a farmer saw his property in Georges Township go from a value of $23,000 to a value of $493,000 for property that has been on the market for years and he has not even received any sort of offer, I think it is safe to say something is wrong.

The property was stripmined and not properly reclaimed. It is not suitable for farming due to poor soil conditions. Grazing livestock is out of the question due to the soil’s inability to grow grazing grass or anything else. Lets not forget that the poor compaction of the soils will not permit the building of homes in most of our lifetimes, so please tell me what is this property worth?

Or how about the single mom that has managed to provide her and her son a nice home because of her hard work and dedication, but she may be forced to sell the home because her property taxes will go up almost $1,000 per year, and her budget simply does not have the room for the tax increases.

These are just two examples of the injustices that I saw first hand, so would somebody please show me the fairness of this assessment? It has been said that our property values have raised in this area. Please then show me an example of this. You may find a parcel here or there, but I see property selling for less now then anytime in the last 15 years or so. Drive down any street in Uniontown or any of the surrounding areas and look at all the “for sale” signs. How many can you count?

My question is this, why is it that we are in a governmental era of raising taxes and nobody seems to care about the people paying these taxes. I know, you’re going to counter me with the statement that this assessment was not a tax increase, but lets be real, in a year or so, when the schools raise there millage and the townships raise there millage because of less money coming from the state, you know all of our property taxes will be going up.

You also spoke about Mr. Hardy’s hotel and surrounding property not being taxed fairly. Well if you take Mr. Hardy and his hotel out of the picture and the 1,000 or so people that work there lose their jobs, what does that do to the tax base?

I do not care what your personal feeling are about Mr. Hardy, consider the payroll he put in to the local economy and why punish him or anybody else for success? Property taxes are the most unfair taxes we face today. You make a mortgage for 20 years or so and you manage to pay off your home, but if you fail to pay your “fair share” of the local property taxes in any given year, you will lose your home, no questions asked.

Remember the retired lady in Ohiopyle who lost her home because she could not pay her property taxes? With the tax increase here in Uniontown, I am willing to bet that you will see an increase in property tax sales soon. Government needs to realize that people are at the end of their “tax rope.”

Fuel Taxes, income taxes, utility taxes, think of all the taxes we pay. It makes me sick to even think about it. When will it stop? The cost of living is simply too much today and people can no longer be looked at like a bottomless money pit for political interest and gain.

The time has come for politicians to make hard choices in consideration for the taxpayers of this county and our country. Does anybody know what happened to all the property tax relief we were going to get from the gambling revenue? Not only were we lied to by Gov. Rendell about how that money was going to be spent, now he wants to raise our income taxes by 16 percent.

This country was founded because of unfair taxes and the belief that all people are equal, I wish the government would go back to this concept. Lets just be thankful that the three commissioners we have here in Fayette County had the guts to make a stand on behalf of the tax payers.

If you really care about our country, do all you can to make the tax and spend attitude in government stop. Elections are the only way we can make this happen, so please if you never had any interest in your government before, take and interest and stop the madness, now.

Ron Metros is a resident of Uniontown.