Leaders in these states are looking to end property taxes: We pay rent to the government

As Tax Day nears, fiscally conservative leaders in several states are pushing to abolish property taxes, with one Pennsylvania lawmaker arguing that homeowners shouldn’t have to “pay rent” to the government.That lawmaker, state Rep.Russ Diamond, R-Lebanon, spoke to Fox News Digital on Thursday ahead of his latest effort to end the collection of such taxes in the Keystone State.Diamond will put forward a resolution — titled HB 900 — which Fox News Digital learned exclusively will be filed imminently.

The document is a draft constitutional amendment he hopes will go to the voters on Election Day, and not a typical piece of legislation requiring gubernatorial approval.Pennsylvania Republicans previously utilized the constitutional amendment process to accelerate the rollback of COVID-19 lockdowns imposed by then-Gov.Tom Wolf and then-health secretary Rachel Levine — by placing the amendment directly before voters on Election Day.“Property taxes are an issue that is not exactly partisan, because in some areas, it’s more of a big deal than in others,” Diamond said, citing varying relationships between taxes and school district funding.Lebanon, he said, is kind of “middle-of-the-road,” but that just to the east in Allentown and Mount Pocono, property taxes are a “big deal.”“For me, the ‘big deal’ is that I want people to own their homes and not have to rent from the government, all across Pennsylvania,” he said.In a recent post on his Substack, Diamond quipped that every time the topic comes up, “folks get all twisted into knots over how we’re going to pay for the things those taxes currently pay for — frankly, they’re missing the point.”“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,” he said.Diamond noted to Fox News Digital how late Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Michael Musmanno called the ability to be “master of [o...