School property taxes would be eliminated under a bill unveiled by state Rep. Frank Ryan, R-Lebanon, at a Capitol press conference Aug. 20.

The School Property Tax Elimination Act would replace 100% of all school property taxes with other expanded and new levies. Ryan, in a statement, said the principle of his bill was to spread out education funding among all Pennsylvanians rather than placing the burden entirely on homeowners.

Older Pennsylvanians, he said, were disproportionately affected by property taxes.

Ryan said he would introduce a final version of the bill for introduction after completion of a listening tour to elicit comment from seniors. He said the measure would be continually updated on his website.

"I have never seen such a complicated problem and unlevel tax system in my life and developing a rational solution has proved daunting," Ryan said.

Ryan blamed the tax for driving residents out of the state and placing an unfair burden on retired persons.

Under the current version of the bill, a local personal income tax of 1.85% would go directly to school districts, and a local sales tax of 2% would be added to existing items that are already taxed by the statewide sales tax, and allocated to districts in the county where the tax was collected.

A new local sales tax of 2% would be added to food and clothing items under the Ryan bill. Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program participants would be exempt from the tax on food.

Finally, non-Social Security retirement income would be taxed at a rate of 4.92% with 3.07% of that tax going to the state for education and 1.85% of the tax going to the school district. Ryan said seniors would save approximately 75% of the school property taxes that they currently pay.