Lehigh County Controller Mark Pinsley, who's always running for something, always needs to have a cause du jour. In 2024, when he just happened to be running for state auditor general, he was the Pied Piper of dozens of families complaining about the overdiagnosis of medical child abuse. That's why Lehigh County no longer has a child advocacy center. Now he wants the county to impose a "progressive revenue option that he calls a wealth tax.
His proposal, which you can read for yourself here, claims it is "consistent with the Pennsylvania Constitution." He's proposing a 0.4$ tax on stocks, bonds, mutual funds, exchange traded funds, brokerage investment accounts, partnership owner interests, passive business equity and pretty much everything that's not nailed down or hidden under the mattress. He proposes to exempt primary residences, checking accounts, 401ks, household savings used for normal expenses, small businesses and family-owned farms.
Before this even gets out of the gate, I believe this will fail because it is likely illegal.
In 1831, an intangible "wealth" tax was imposed in Pennsylvania, under which the state collected tax on ontangible property and turned it over to the counties. But the Pennsylvania Supreme Court invalidated this tax to the extent that it ran afoul of the Commerce Clause. By 1988, no counties were levying this controversial tax. The state legislature has since repealed the intangible personal porperty tax and expressly prohibits counties from imposing it. Ryan Mackenzie, then a State Rep. was one of the sponsors of that legislation.
So, like everything else that Pinsley proposes, it is much ado about nothing.
First it was a billionaire tax, then a millionaire tax, not this numb nut wants to tax the middle class with a wealth tax. Is this clown out of his mind? He shouldn’t get elected to anything. Do people actually research candidates? What dumbasses for electing this clown. Oh, and the other socialist , the county executive agrees with it. Two dumbasses.
ReplyDeleteThe general electorate doesn't do sufficient research, Siegel campaigned as a moderate mainstream Democrat.
DeleteThis is what the Lehigh county voters vote for a progressive.
ReplyDeleteYour next Northampton you keep voting for progressives.
ReplyDeleteAt least LC has a controller and fiscal director, when will NC get one?
ReplyDeletewe already have a controler you dumb ass
DeleteNot so sure about “much ado about nothing.” This outrageous idea of a wealth tax has already been pushed in such failing Liberal/Democrat controlled governments in the states of Washington, California, and New York. In those places, private individuals and corporations have started to pick-up and leave for other states. The same would happen here.
ReplyDeleteRight now in America, there is a growing mindset among various Liberal groups that anyone who supposedly has more assets than the some lower income group must be stripped of their “wealth” with the proceeds sprinkled over those who for whatever reason have accumulated less during their lives.
The hated top ten percent of all so-called wealthy people in America ALREADY pay about 85% of all federal taxes taken in . . . . but, that’s evidently not enough for jerks like Pinsley and his ilk.
Democrats keep bringing up "wealth taxes", a scheme to slowly take what people have saved or invested without any actual increase. It negates the whole idea of private property. It would also lead to all kinds of malivestments or actually a reduction in investments by attempting to avoid these taxes. The biggest wealth tax that we already have is property tax, which has negated the principle of private property. We actually rent our property, but must maintain it and any increase in value is more a result of government induced inflation than a real gain.
ReplyDeleteAre you sure that some of the families caught up in alleged child abuse cases involving the horrendous actions of the now disgraced doctor would agree that everything he does is much ado about nothing?
ReplyDeleteIn order to tax something they need to know about something, do the "Leaders" of Lehigh County expect us to list all of our assets? What if I don't comply. These "Progressive" democrats hate us and want us dead; or at least want us broke. I see Lamont is now "Progressive"
ReplyDeleteIs that du jour stuff some sort of lube for those with stocks and bonds?
ReplyDeleteThe Personal Property Tax was abolished in Northampton County in the early nineties. It was still a legal tax, but Northampton County chose not to use it.
ReplyDeleteI certainly hope it passes legal muster because Lehigh County voters and taxpayers richly deserve it. They voted for Pinhead and need to learn a lesson. My only problem with the tax is that it's not high enough.
ReplyDeleteBetween this mindless wanabee and the boy wonder siegel Lehigh County is in deep kimchi
ReplyDeleteIt’s not legal, and I suspect that the real motivation is to use the publicity for a run for a different office at some point.
ReplyDeleteThat said, Lehigh County government no longer reflects the values of its residents and the Board is controlled by idiots with a similar mindset to Siegel and Pinsley. Until the voters wise up and vote them out of office, these types of proposals have to be vigorously opposed by the public, lest they pass and become law.
Should the proposal pass, Lehigh County will likely be the defendant in multiple lawsuits that it will lose. However much Siegel and Pinsley claim such a tax will raise, it will be a drop in the bucket to what the county pays in legal fees to defend this loser.
Let’s not forget that Siegel and Pinsley also tried to institute a county-wide sale tax (on top of the PA sales tax) after Covid hit and many people were out of work.
ReplyDeleteThese are vile radicals that should be tossed out of office, along with any commissioner (including the drug dealer) who votes for the wealth tax proposal.
"The state legislature has since repealed the intangible personal porperty tax and expressly prohibits counties from imposing it."
ReplyDeleteHi Bernie: According to the link you posted, while a repeal of the tax was introduced in the state legislature, it was never voted upon. I believe the law is still on the books.
That being said, given that it's been decades since any county in Pennsylvania used the power authorized by this law, I think any county that implements this tax is looking at an immediate lawsuit which they very well may lose.
I have no interest in supporting a tax like this in Northampton County for a number of reasons.
Jason, the link I provided is only to recent house bill that was never enacted. But prior to that, under Act 145 of 1988, it was ither outright appealed or made optional. Unfortunately, Act 145 itself is only partially effective bc a constitutional amendment tied to it failed. I believe Act 50 of 1988, which established a taxpayer Bill of Rights, effectively eliminates intangible personal property from taxation, at least insofar as mercantile or business privilege tax is concerned. https://www.legis.state.pa.us/WU01/LI/LI/US/HTM/1988/0/0145.005.000.033.000..HTM
DeleteThe link I provided was to a bill that was intended to make it expressly clear, but I misread a bill as law. I believe the bill was intended to make clear tthat this tax is illegal. I actually think the tax is already illegal and would never survive a challenge. There's a reason why no municipal government is trying to do this
See that’s where you’re wrong. Your own story proves the point. Pinsley made children left safe so he could gather a bunch of plaintiffs for a lawyer. That lawyer then contributed $50,000.00 to his last campaign for whatever. Children are less safe in the Valley today because of Pinsley.
ReplyDeleteWe're represented by a bunch of nuts who only care about their political careers!
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like something that Mayor Reynolds would jump on in Bethlehem if it were legal for 3rd Class cities to impose. Then his puppet city council would rubber stamp it. Socialism continues to creep into the Lehigh Valley.
ReplyDeleteBut stuff like this and Siegel’s proposal to terminate Lehigh County employees’ employment if they interact positively with ICE are scary.
ReplyDeleteConsidering all the eligible sources for calculating the tax, one must hire a Big Four firm to file while the county will have to staff an agency as big as the Department of Defense to administer the tax. It would be easier to raise the property tax.
ReplyDeleteTaxpayers! Do not sleep on this proposed tax.
ReplyDeleteYes, its a tax on savers, working families, seniors and small business owners. There is NO minimum income threshold. This is NOT a so called wealth tax.
It is a tax on everyone who utilizes very common savings tools like stocks, bonds, mutual funds and other taxable investment accounts as well as small business owners organized as partnerships.
Lehigh County has several ultra progressive Commissioners, including a self styled "Democratic Socialist", who appear very willing to ram this forward even on a questionable (at best) legal basis at best. They have enough votes to spend waste alot of public time on this. They are willing to shop around for legal answers they want.
Several Commissioners appear very willing to roll the dice with taxpayer money and invite an inevitable lawsuit that could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.This issue has legs. It is not going away.
Bernie,
ReplyDeleteWhen i worked at Bethlehem Steel, I used to invest part of my paycheck into a 401K. The person who would do our taxes (my wife and I) told me that because they invested my monies in the stock market it was considered Taxable under the Personal Property Tax Laws. When I became County Executive (1990-1993) Ladd Siftar, then a County Councilman, introduced a "resolution" to abolish the tax. The Resolution passed and the tax was eliminated. The tax hurt the little guy more than the rich.
Why is this blog always passing inaccuracies off as truth ? Good on Comm. Boulibas for correcting you.
ReplyDeleteIt's Jason Boulette, and I thank him for correcting me. I am not entitled to my own facts, but this area is quite murky and I do believe it would be illegal. The advantage of an interactive blog is that I can be corrected when I make mistakes, which I do. I have 8,000 plus editors.
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