CD throws new twist into paying taxes

If you live in Lower Paxton Twp., you should have received by now a postcard (pictured) from CD School District asking you not to send school property-tax payments to Diane Bair, LP's elected tax collector, but to a post office box in Bethlehem. T.W. Burger, Patriot-News beat reporter for LP and CD schools, did a good job explaining what’s happening in today’s edition.

The change throws a few more moving parts into paying property taxes – school property-tax payments go to a post office box in Bethlehem, and Diane Bair will continue to collect payments for township and county property taxes.

The school district having to come up with a creative way to get tax dollars sooner is proof that the system for collecting local taxes in Pennsylvania needs to be put out to pasture. Electing citizens to collect taxes no longer works in many places, like LP.

Some help is on the way though. Gov. Ed Rendell signed into law a bill today that will eliminate most local tax collectors for local earned income taxes – that's the 2 percent local tax on paychecks for LP residents. In a typical move by state lawmakers, the deadline for implementing the new setup for collecting wage taxes isn't until January 2012, according to an article published by a Chambersburg paper (scroll down to bottom of article). Unfortunately, the new law does not address the collection of school property taxes.