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The History of Property Taxes in Pennsylvania up to 1950

The Free School Act of 1834
In the early part of the 1830s, Pennsylvania had already developed into a very diverse state. With many diverse cultures, and expectations of what the state's role in education of the youth should be. For example, several cultures, such as the Amish and Catholics, believed that the state should have no say, and rather the church should be the one to educate children. In opposition do these beliefs were groups such as the Baptists and Methodists, which were in strong support of a public school system. Despite the divisive nature of this issue, Governor George Wolf petitioned the legislation of the state to pass laws creating the ability to form public schools. Although legislation was made in the form of "The Free School Act of 1834", the decision of whether or not to accept the law was left up to individual school districts. This created what became known as school taxes, in order to fund the new public schools. Which created even more division over the act. Generally speaking, more liberal citizens tended to favor the act, while more conservative people sided against it. http://www.pennsylvaniaresearch.com/pennsylvania-common-schools.html

The Earle Reform of 1937
The Earle Reform of the late 1930s was the work of former Pennsylvanian George Earle. Despite being a democrat, Earle was elected as governor of the traditionally republican state in 1934. The primary cause of this was the boost in democratic popularity following the success of FDR's New Deal. Earle ran on the promise of helping PA's economy by lowering unemployment rates. In order to do this, Earle proposed his "little new deal". The deal included the introduction of The Department of Public Assistance, which was in charge of distributing relief compensation to the public. In total,the Earle Reforms introduced over 3000 new bills into law. < > http://explorepahistory.com/hmarker.php?markerId=1-A-331>>

State Equalization Board
The State Equalization Board was founded in 1947. The general purpose of the board is to evaluate and determine the value of properties in the commonwealth and decide what amount each property should be taxed. The main goals of the State Tax Equalization Board is to help fund public schools and to also make sure each school district is receiving a relatively equal amount of funding. The STEB is comprised of 3 members whom are appointed by the governor and confirmed by legislation. Currently the board consists of Peter Barsz (Chairman), Daniel Guydish and Anthony Pinizzotto. https://dced.pa.gov/local-government/boards-committees/tax-equalization-division/ https://dced.pa.gov/local-government/boards-committees/state-tax-equalization-board-steb-members/

Tax Anything Law
The tax anything law is a law that allows the commonwealth of Pennsylvania to tax the sale or usage of a number of different items. Manufactured goods, prepared foods and hotel rentals are notable inclusions of the tax anything law. Textbooks, raw foods and clothes are the more important exemptions.