Pennsylvanians Get More Bad News

Luzerne County, Pennsylvania recently approved a 15% increase in property taxes.

"It's official. The Luzerne County property tax rate is going up 15 percent tax (sic) this year."

"The county tax rate this year is now 5.215 mills, up from the 2009 rate of 4.5347 mills. A mill is a $1 tax on every $1,000 in assessed property value, and the 15-percent tax increase will cost the owner of a property assessed at $100,000 an additional $68.03 this year."

It's unclear how much the property tax is supposed to raise in total each year.

However, deceitful politicians are blaming the tax increase on spending that occurred in prior years, despite increasing spending themselves in the current year.

What is simply astounding is that the county currently has over $460m of outstanding debt, which occurred while having an annual budget of just over $100m per year. It is clear that Luzerne County has been mismanaged for years, and that trend seems to be continuing.

Some hope can be gleaned from comments in the article from a county resident, who uses the word "mismanagement", "corruption" and "misspending".

Hopefully mistrust of local politicians starts to grow within Luzerne County, so that residents can begin the process of reclaiming their county from greedy unions, corrupt politicians and tax-hike favoring residents that want "something-for-nuthin".