GUEST VIEW: $25 tax not the ticket for raising police revenue – Sharonherald

The Eric Frein trial and Peace Officers Memorial Day linger on as tragic reminders of the dangers our state troopers face every day.

Corporal Bryon Dickson II and close to 100 other Pennsylvania troopers have been killed in the line of duty since the force was founded in 1905, in response to the Great Anthracite Strike. The force was created to control mob violence, track down criminals, patrol farms and protect wildlife. It was not until the 1930s, as the roadway network grew, that highway patrol duties were added.

While our gratitude and support for our State Police runs deep, the governors plan to levy a $25 per capita fee in communities without their own local police force sets a troubling new precedent and targets rural Pennsylvania towns who have traditionally relied on the State Police for more than a century.

Predicted to raise $63 million, the fee would strike approximately 1,294 of 2,571 municipalities, eight rural counties and about 2.5 million residents representing about 20 percent of the states population, according to State Police officials. While some larger communities have no local police force, the bulk of communities without their own local police forces are exceedingly small in population, square footage and tax base.

In hearings held in March, testifiers pointed out that this head tax is a first-time-ever move by the state to charge its own municipalities for service.

The state renders many services to local government, from restaurant inspections and agricultural marketing to infectious disease control, emergency response and environmental reviews. Yet, the state has not charged local governments extra for these services, on top of state taxes. This State Police fee would be a breakthrough double tax and may be the inaugural slide down a slippery slope.

The residents of rural municipalities without local police and in fact, all municipalities already pay for the State Police through sales, income and gas taxes, licensing and registration fees, and more. To say that rural residents are getting free police service ignores the many diverse revenue sources that fund our State Police.

All taxpaying Pennsylvanians, in both major cities and small rural communities, pay for the State Police. If communities want police protection that exceeds the level offered by the State Police, that is indeed their prerogative. They have made the choice to pay for protection that is closer, more accessible, and more personalized.

But it is essential to remember, these municipalities still use the State Police as a secondary force.

Yet, the state does not charge these municipalities, nor should it, when they must call in the State Police for back-up for crowd control, DNA testing, helicopter searches, cyber-crime detection, explosives control, terrorism threats, and more. If this head tax becomes a trend, will these municipalities also start to be charged fees each time they call the State Police for support?

Notably, fee supporters have stated their hope that this $25 fee will be a first step charge that will be raised every year. Set arbitrarily at $25, the surcharge is not tied to actual expenditures or cost-control measures meaning there is no limit to how high the tax can go in future years.

For some municipalities in our area, this head tax would generate a sum that exceeds their entire local operating budget. It is reminiscent of the taxing levels proposed by urbanites who push to tax people based on the mileage they drive a clear attack on rural Pennsylvania, where the bulk of our food and energy originate.

Taxpayers have asked me if they will see what their added $25 is buying. But sadly, this fee does not buy them added protection or personnel. As a one-size-fits-all fee, it would also be paid by everyone, from infants to college students living away from home, to retirees and seniors living in nursing homes.

Instead of turning to their own municipalities when the state needs money, it would be wiser for the state to undertake systematic reforms and address the spending problem.

Adding an unprecedented, arbitrarily set new tax on small town rural communities, not based on actual costs or ability to pay, and without cost controls, is not the ticket to a balanced budget for the rural communities I represent.

Id love to hear from you. Please tell me what you think about the governors $25 per capita tax suggestion.

Visit my website at http://www.senatorbrooks.com, and share your feedback with me. And thank you, as always, for the privilege and honor of representing you in the state Senate, where I will continue to protect the freedom, safety and fiscal stability of our families and friends.

REPUBLICAN Sen. Michele Brooks of Jamestown represents the 50th District.

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GUEST VIEW: $25 tax not the ticket for raising police revenue - Sharonherald