Oct. 14, 2026
— Jeff Ward, Lehigh Valley News Briefs
The next time a Pennsylvania politician says they have a plan to abolish property taxes, tell them to buzz off.
We have been hearing this for decades, particularly as elections approach. It’s nonsense.
Long-term school district debt is backed by property taxes. Each bond sold includes covenants, basically a contract saying how the debt will be repaid. No state law is going to change that and the debt lasts for decades.
Consider just as an example, the Parkland School District’s proposed $32 million debt sale. If carried out, the proceeds of the sale will pay off bonds from 2019, according to a legal notice posted by Parkland. Thus there is no “new money” in the sale, as bond dealers say. It’s for repayment of old debt under better terms or an extended time.
The bonds are “general obligation” debt, meaning they are backed by the “full faith and credit” of the district. That means they are backed by property taxes. Parkland is the example but this applies to all districts.
So what does it all mean? It means any politician who says they’re going to abolish property taxes is uninformed or deceitful or playing a word game. The fact that is been promised for decades and hasn’t happened should be enough for the public to understand it’s not going to happen.
It’s nonsense. Tell them that. No law is going to change contracts and no bond holder is going to give up the security of taxes on property for the whims of the panderers in Harrisburg.
I did get a response from a reader earlier that bond holders “don’t care as long as they get repaid.”
Dear Reader, thank you for reading, but you have no idea of what you’re talking about.
The Parkland Board of Directors will meet at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 20 at the district’s administration building, 1210 Springhouse Road, to consider the bond sale, according to the legal notice. Discussion of the sale was on an Oct. 13 agenda.
