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<p>KINGSTON &#8212; Who wants to continue to pay property taxes? Stand over here.</p><p>Hello?</p><p>The answer to the question is nobody. Who would want to pay property taxes if they weren&#8217;t required to pay them?</p><p>The Luzerne County organization CAP Taxes &#8212; Citizens Against Property Taxes &#8212; wants to see the elimination of all property taxes. Not a reduction, or an adjustment. They want property taxes E-L-I-M-N-A-T-E-D.</p><p>To gain more support for their cause, the members of CAP Taxes are hosting a meeting Thursday night at 6:30 p.m. at Grotto Pizza in the Gateway Shopping Center, Edwardsville. They want everyone to attend.</p><p>And they want you to contact your legislators to tell them to vote for the elimination of property taxes.</p><p>Organization members favor raising the state sales tax and the state income tax. CAP Taxes feels property taxes are unconstitutional because they are paid by only a certain portion of the residents, while sales and income taxes are paid by all.</p><p>I sat down Tuesday with members of CAP Taxes to hear what they had to say. We met at the Bake House in Kingston and the group came prepared with all sorts of documents and petitions and opinions. Tom Dombroski and his daughter, Joyce Dombroski Gebhardt, Frank Chest and John Kistler discussed the issue.</p><p>I left with a lot of knowledge and a darn good chicken salad sandwich on a croissant.</p><p>These people are passionate about this issue and it would be nice, I guess, to not have to pay property taxes. CAP Taxes wants this to be part of Gov. Tom Wolf&#8217;s first budget.</p><p>But he doesn&#8217;t.</p><p>During these budget-less times, Wolf is trying to negotiate a budget agreement for fiscal year 2015-16, which started July 1, with the Republican leadership of the House and Senate. It hasn&#8217;t been going well.</p><p>In fact, Wolf issued a terse letter, ending it by stating, &#8220;It is time to suspend the games and get to work.&#8221;</p><p>Just when the governor thought progress was being made, he learned that the GOP was about to &#8220;make an unconstitutional attempt to use line-by-line veto overrides.&#8221; Wolf didn&#8217;t see that as a positive, prompting him to say the move &#8220;will distract from serious negotiations.&#8221;</p><p>Ya think?</p><p>Wolf wants &#8220;meaningful negotiations,&#8221; but he sees that is not shared by the GOP leadership.</p><p>Jeffrey Sheridan, Wolf&#8217;s press secretary, said the governor and his staff have had a few questions about this proposal to eliminate property taxes. Sheridan said the governor&#8217;s plan is &#8220;comprehensive&#8221; and would reduce, not eliminate, property taxes, by some $3.8 billion.</p><p>I&#8217;m sure Wolf&#8217;s plan has merits. I&#8217;m sure the Republicans have good ideas too.</p><p>And I know Cap Taxes truly believes that eliminating property taxes is the best for all. Tom Dombroski, a member of Cap Taxes, is an usher at my church. He&#8217;s a good guy. I know he believes in his plan.</p><p>Frank Chest and John Kistler also believe in their cause. They point to hundreds of foreclosures that they say are a result of people&#8217;s inability to pay their property taxes.</p><p>Tom Dombroski&#8217;s daughter, Joyce, has helped keep the organization growing, flaunting petitions with 15,000 signatures. She wants people to attend Thursday night&#8217;s meeting.</p><p>People should attend.</p><p>People should know what CAP Taxes is all about so they can decide if they want to support them or not. If they do, they can then decide how hard they want to fight. Do they want to take the time to call legislators or the governor and let them know how they feel?</p><p>And that is the point. We need people to be involved in this process. We need people to be informed. We need more in the process than our elected officials.</p><p>Eliminating property taxes sounds like a great idea, but by doing that are we biting off more than we can chew? Or is it something that not only can be done, but should be done?</p><p>Are the good people of CAP Taxes correct when they say the best approach to this state budget is to shift the burden of revenue off of property owners to a more even, all-encompassing system?</p><p>We should never just give our elected officials a pass on any issue.</p><p>We shouldn&#8217;t allow them to vote how they personally feel. They should vote the way their constituents feel. We are, after all, a government of the people, by the people and for the people.</p><p>And we do pay the bills. But by idly standing by, we give up our role in the process.</p><p>The people of CAP Taxes have invested a lot of their time in trying to get the word out. The group is having a meeting.</p><p>The least the general public can do is come and listen.</p><style>
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<div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/web1_TTL082615CAPTax.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Members of the CAP Taxes group meeting in Kingston are, from left: John Kistler, Joyce Dombroski Gebhardt, Frank Chest and Tom Dombroski. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/web1_TTL082615CAPTax.jpg</photo0><caption0>Members of the CAP Taxes group meeting in Kingston are, from left: John Kistler, Joyce Dombroski Gebhardt, Frank Chest and Tom Dombroski. </caption0><photoCredit0>Clark Van Orden | Times Leader </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/web1_Columnshot-1-21.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Bill O&#8217;Boyle </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/web1_Columnshot-1-21.jpg</photo1><caption1>Bill O&#8217;Boyle </caption1><photoCredit1>Clark Van Orden | Times Leader </photoCredit1></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Bill O&#8217;Boyle</p><p>boboyle@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Bill O&#8217;Boyle at 570-991-6118 or on Twitter @TLBillOBoyle.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

In Focus: Practically speaking, can taxes on real estate in Pennsylvania be eliminated?