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The Home Rule Issue
Posted 8-21-2002
It seems the issue of a home
rule study in Westmoreland County has been put aside for the time being. I
am not going to speculate on why Commissioner Conner's petition drive failed
again. What I would like to do is examine some of the issues surrounding
home rule and the supposed primary issue of Mr. Conner's effort, government
by referendum.
Home rule, in the instances
in Pennsylvania where it has been implemented or studied, focused on
changing the commission form of government. Mr. Conner proposed no specific
changes to the form of government; he focused primarily on giving voters
control of what their tax rate would be for COUNTY taxes. The proposal had
NOTHING to do with the largest part of a property owner's tax bill, their
school taxes, or even the property taxes paid to their municipal government.
On the surface, a proposal to
give people the ability to vote on proposed tax increases may seem very
appealing. But make no mistake; there is no free lunch. We take taxes very
seriously in Westmoreland County government. Our millage was set at 14.99
mills in 1993. Ten budgets later, it is 16.99 mills. In the past twenty
years, county property taxes have only been raised three times. So, is the
frequency of county tax increases a truly pressing issue? I really don't
think so. Taxes have been raised only to keep pace with the rising costs of
operating a very large service provider.
Any proposal that possibly
could have been adopted would have had to include exceptions to the
referendum process. Even Act 50, the Homestead Exemption legislation passed
by the Commonwealth a few years ago (and only adopted by three school
districts in Pennsylvania) allowed for exceptions, such as increases in debt
service. Without these exceptions, a taxing body's bond rating would be in
jeopardy. Investors who buy those bonds want to know that the taxing body
can and will make good on those bond payments. They are not comfortable with
referendums that dictate a government's ability to pay off the bonds they
issue.
Even among the seven home
rule counties in Pennsylvania, there are no tax referendums as part of a
home rule charter. Leaders at every level of government are elected to make
tough decisions for the common good, and perhaps none is tougher than the
decision to raise taxes. Irrespective of political rhetoric, no elected
officials make that decision cavalierly. It may sound very enticing to
taxpayers to say, "you decide". But trust is put in the people we elect to
make that decision responsibly and in the best interest of their
constituents. If that responsibility is not taken seriously, and tax
increases become too frequent, officeholders get replaced.
The decision to raise taxes
for an entity as large as county government, with a $270 million budget and
all the complexities of a variety of funding sources, is one that requires
much work and analysis. Right now, Westmoreland County only generates about
$59 million of that $270 million through property taxes. So, evaluation of
many other factors, including fees generated for other services, revenue
expectations from the state and federal governments, and the growth of the
tax base, play a role in determining how much millage must be imposed to
meet our legal budget requirements. Those factors could not be communicated
completely and succinctly enough for referenda to be effective public
finance policy.
Home rule simply does not
address the primary challenges we face in county government. It can make
cosmetic changes to the structure, but the financial challenges don't go
away. Look at Allegheny County. It may have changed from the commission form
of government, but its financial picture is no better. Reduction of the
dependence on property taxes will only come about with tax reform, not home
rule. When you have an entity like county government, that generates less
than 25% of its revenue from property taxes, our challenges are fiscal in
nature, not structural. Selling the idea of a referendum makes for good
political rhetoric, but not sound public policy. |
