Of Dross and Sawdust

If your first response when I say ‘eliminate property taxes’ is to ask ‘How will we fund government?’ - you’re completely missing the point.

[Warning: this column requires a bit of pondering and philosophizing in the abstract.]

Every time I talk about eliminating taxes on real estate in Pennsylvania, folks get all twisted into knots over how we’re going to pay for the things those taxes currently pay for. Schools. Counties. Municipalities. Frankly, they’re missing the point.

Certainly, those funding conversations will warrant attention at some point, but not until we agree that property taxes as we know them are antithetical to the most basic of American principles: personal liberty.

Property Ownership = Liberty

Boiled down to its very essence, fulfilling the promise of personal liberty is impossible if you can’t actually own a piece of real property. But you can’t truly own real property in Pennsylvania because no matter where that property is located, it will be perpetually taxed. Because of property taxes, you are not free. You are being held captive. Fail to pay your property taxes and your property will be seized and hence, your chance at true personal liberty is denied.

A free man (or woman) should be able to acquire a piece of property and - through his own labor and devices - transform that property into a self-sufficient homestead where he (or she) can permanently retreat from the rest of the world if he (or she) chooses. That is the ultimate realization of personal liberty.

Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Michael Musmanno stated it far more eloquently back in 1966:

“The greatest joy that can be experienced by mortal man is to feel himself master of his fate, - this in small as well as in big things. Of all the precious privileges and prerogatives in the crown of happiness which every American citizen has the right to wear, none shines with greater luster and imparts more innate satisfaction and soulful contentment to the wearer than the golden, diamond-studded right to be let alone. Everything else in comparison is dross and sawdust.”

Musmanno, who had a fascinating personal and poltical history of his own, wrote that as part of the Court’s ruling in Commonwealth v. Murray. It’s one of my favorite quotes from a Supreme Court Justice in Pennsylvania, and I was fortunate enough to be able to weave it into a debate on the House floor a couple years back.

Transactions and Interactions

Back to our self-sufficient homestead and its inhabitant.

What need for government does such an individual on a self-sufficient homestead have? None. It’s only when that individual wanders off the homestead and/or transacts or interacts with others that government may be become useful.

Our homesteader may interact with another homesteader next door, conducting trades and transactions for goods and/or services, and may not need any government. There could be an entire community of such homesteaders who conduct mutually beneficial transactions and interactions and still have no need for formal government.

You get my point. I hope.

If you don’t, my point is that while it may be impractical to expect everyone to be a rough and rugged homesteader, we should strive to give everyone the greatest opportunity to retreat to the bosom of personal liberty if they so choose. Property taxes are a ransom on liberty from which you can never escape. Eliminating them liberates every property owner and potential property owner. (All of us!)

Don’t Take My Word For It

If you do not believe true property ownership is all that big a deal or the actual cornerstone of personal liberty, I suggest you take a few minutes to jot down a list of individual freedoms and rights critical to liberty, and rank them from the most important to the least important.

Or, I can save you the time and point you to such a list that already exists and has withstood the ages: The Pennsylvania Constitution. Specifically Article I, a/k/a the Declaration of Rights.

Acquiring, possessing and protecting property are listed in Section 1 – titled Inherent rights of mankind. – with only life and liberty being listed ahead of them. The very first section!!! That’s before the right to religious freedom, before the right to a jury trial, before the freedom of speech, and every other right you could think of putting on your list.

That’s how important property rights are. And it’s been that way since the very first version of the PA Constitution was written in 1776.

Taxing Property is Inherently Anti-Liberty

You don’t have to pay a tax to enjoy your right to religious freedom, your right to a jury trial, or your freedom of speech. Given their position in our Declaration of Rights, how on earth could you ever justify taxing property rights, which rank much higher on that same list?

When you buy a couch, you’re charged a sales tax. That’s a transaction with others, where government serves as a referee of sorts for providing a marketplace where consumer protections and fairness (theoretically) rule the day.

Or… you could build your own couch, using lumber you harvest, cloth and wool padding from the sheep you’re raising, and metal springs forged from ore you’ve dug up and refined, all while still in retreat from transactions and interactions with others on your homestead. There is no sales tax on this couch.

But either way, you are not taxed for your couch after you’ve paid for it and had it delivered to your home, or after you’ve constructed it yourself from the fruits of your homestead. It’s yours forever, no matter what. Enjoy!

The same should apply to your real property. There’s a transfer tax when you buy it, ostensibly to cover the costs of maintaining records (and other stuff immaterial to this conversation), but you should never be taxed as a prerequisite for keeping it. Period.

Consent of the Governed

The Declaration of Independence states that “[g]overnments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

Do you remember when you consented to be governed? I don’t.

Oh, it’s implied that by participating in elections we are consenting to be governed, but none of us ever sat down and actually negotiated our consent. If consent were real, we’d be able to withdraw it. If consent cannot be withdrawn, it’s not consent at all. You cannot retreat and withdraw consent as long as property taxes exist.

Eliminating property taxes as we know them will restore your ability to truly consent. Eliminating property taxes will relegate consent to those voluntary transactions and interactions where government (theoretically) serves as an arbiter and enforcer of fairness in trade and markets.

BuT hOw WiLl We FuNd GoVeRnMeNt?!?

Stop it. That question is entirely secondary to the objective of securing our right to true liberty by eliminating real property taxes. The rest is merely a math problem, which you can assign to your servants – the Pennsylvania General Assembly – to figure out. You can offer your input and ideas to your Representatives and Senators. And you can give them a deadline for completing the assignment. You’re the boss!

That is exactly what my proposal to eliminate property taxes would do. It’s a constitutional amendment where YOU can vote to eliminate ALL property taxes in Pennsylvania and give the General Assembly a date certain to figure out the rest.

Constitutional amendments take time to put on the ballot, and the General Assembly will need some time to debate, dicker, and deliberate over how to fund those government services property taxes currently pay for.

Five years should be enough. My bill sets a deadline of July 1, 2030, after which property taxes would be constitutionally prohibited in the Commonwealth – forever! – securing your right to acquire, possess and protect property and strengthening your ability to truly consent to be governed and to be let alone.

Everything else in comparison is dross and sawdust.

Agree? Disagree? I want to hear from you! Leave a comment or send a reply email!

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