Pennsylvania exit poll

A grand total of only two poll workers was outside the Plains Twp. firehall when I was recorded as voter number 146 out of 1000+ at about 4:30PM today. This is the worst turnout I have seen in the 15 years I  have voted in this precinct. It's hard to say who's campaign this helps or hurts but it means we are all losers when so few people bother to participate in the process of selecting our leaders. The poll workers are people Mrs. G has known since she was a child and looked us up as soon as we walked up to the sign in table so we didn't show a photo ID. We capped off the afternoon of doing our civic duty by paying our property taxes at the collectors office. We turned around our IRS refund by using that money to pay the county and township taxes. Great timing.

Tax collector caught cooking the books

The latest story of a tax collector that has been caught with their hands in the till.

W-B Twp. tax collector suspended

Longtime township Tax Collector Ruth Janick Lyons was suspended from her job without pay Tuesday after officials discovered roughly $40,000 is missing from the township’s accounts, solicitor Bruce Phillips said.

I can't count how many times I've seen a similar headline over the last 10 years. It is an outdated system electing tax collectors when the taxing bodies have the ability to collect property taxes without a middleman. Why do we need tax collectors anyway? One claims that she double checks the addresses to make sure they are correct. Maybe she does but it took me 2 years to get the address right for a rental property we own. After pointing out the mistake to our local yokel several times I ended up going to the courthouse to get it fixed. And I'm tired of hearing it's more convenient for the senior citizens. Seniors get other bills such as utilities, credit cards, etc. and those companies don't have someone down the street collecting their checks. Tax Collector is another one of those offices that should be eliminated.

Home Rule