[PRCo] Re: Fayette County Economy

[Edward H. Lybarger]

The property taxes are going to be a bear to do anything with.  Not only do
you need to convert to constant dollars, but assessments changed, too.  And
as a percentage of income, they've perhaps gotten smaller?  I won't know
until I look...have the property tax stuff back to 1941, when owning first
became possible.

But don't count on this real soon...I just finished a humongous project and
have a second one in the works, plus, along with Fred, the not-small matter
of getting this year's display up at the museum!

-----Original Message-----
From: pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementia.org
[mailto:pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementia.org]On Behalf Of Fred
Schneider
Sent: Thursday, January 30, 2003 12:50 PM
To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
Subject: [PRCo] Re: Fayette County Economy



And when you do look up those effective rates, remember something else.   No
sales tax in Pennsylvania before the 1950s.  No state and local income taxes
before the 1960s.  Schools required one teacher for every 40 kids instead of
every 20; principals were teachers doing an extra chore, and there were no
staff
attorneys, school bus drivers, sou chefs, etc.

The property taxes had to be lower too because he expect far less of our
county
governments then. For example, we didn't expect them to run buses for the
have
nots.  Or operate welfare programs.

"Edward H. Lybarger" wrote:

> Any economy dependent on extraction is doomed.  Western Pennsylvania got
> away with boom times for many years owing to the immense quantity of the
> extractive resource (coal) that made steel manufacture in the region
> advantageous.  Unfortunately, the steel companies' mentality of excluding
> employee input to the whole process resulted in a narrowly-focused
workforce
> and an arrogant management.  Their heirs, both physically and
> intellectually, have tended to share that provinciality and continue a lot
> of the old thinking in times of change.  As a result, we have some of the
> worst local politicians you can imagine...while they don't have their
hands
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