Walt Whitmer, a community development agent in Juniata County, began giving presentations to municipal and county officials, tax assessors, and others in a nine-county region two years before the law was implemented. He partnered with Kelsey to help the Mifflin County School Board committee, and he remembers the confusion as they struggled to understand it. "The law is very, very complicated," Whitmer says, "and it's very easy for the public to misinterpret its implications. Even with the materials that came out from the assessment offices with the applications for homestead exclusions, it was hard for citizens to understand what was going on."

In McKean and Potter Counties, extension agents James Clark and Robin Kuleck teamed up for workshops and radio talk shows that explained Act 50.

In McKean and Potter Counties, agricultural agent James Clark teamed with family living agent Robin Kuleck to present homestead exclusion workshops and speak on radio talk shows across the north-central Pennsylvania region. Clark says the team approach was very effective. "Extension has a role to play in explaining the issues and encouraging people to be actively involved in their communities and schools," Clark says. "At first we sought people out by offering the workshops, but it didn't take long before people were coming after us for information."

Dan Brockett, community development agent in Venango County, conducted local tax meetings and educational sessions in eight northwestern counties. He also provided information and met with various community groups concerning local taxes.

"Initially, our education programs brought a broad audience of citizens who were interested in how their taxes would be affected by Act 50," Brockett says. "Nearly 3,000 people attended those first meetings, and many groups and officials have continued to look to us for information and education."

Alta Miller of Belleville is a homemaker who serves on several civic boards and committees, as well as co-owning and managing her family's construction company. She's very clear on why she decided to make the time to serve on the Mifflin County tax committee.

"I get tired of listening to people gripe all the time without doing anything about it," she says. "So I tried to do my civic duty and be a fixer instead of just complain. No one likes to pay taxes, but our school district has to fund public education, and they are trying to do it in the least evil ways. To make good decisions, you have to be informed. Cooperative extension is helping us get the information we need so we can make a good recommendation. What at first appears to be a no-brainer can turn into something more difficult when you look at how other people are affected."

Jon Zimmerman is a Lewistown businessman who isn't sure who volunteered him for the committee. But when he got the letter of invitation, he saw its importance. "The biggest challenge is to maintain the revenues collected by the current taxes, but do so in a manner that's fair," Zimmerman says. "Act 50 will help us eliminate the nuisance taxes, refine the real estate taxes, and do something with the income tax. But when we eliminate a tax, we have to be able to offset that with increases in another tax. To take from one area and make sure it's made up in another--fairly--requires the wisdom of Solomon.

Some of the questions just can't be answered. And you have diverse views on the committee: you have farmers and retired people, small business people and people from large corporations. They all have different tax concerns, and everybody has very strong opinions. It's really difficult to tax everybody fairly. We have enough information to get close, but if we miss it by a million dollars, it's hard for the school to make up that revenue--stipulations prohibit the district from going back and changing taxes. You have one shot at it, and you have to get it right."

A companion video to the workbook series helps participants to visualize the many different aspects of tax fairness. Kelsey also created a local tax Web site (http://www.psu.edu/dept/aers/ltoc/) that offers census information and most of the local statistics needed to complete the data analysis phase. A spreadsheet from the fourth workbook makes it easy to calculate the impact of taxes on typical taxpayers of varying incomes. "We've compiled all the pertinent information in one place on the Web so that local citizens can focus on doing the exercises and discussing these complex issues and situations," Kelsey says.

Michael Pechart, director of local government programs for the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau's Governmental Relations Division, says cooperative extension support and materials played a big part in the bureau's efforts to inform its members.

"Property taxes have always been an unfair method of taxation for farmers," Pechart says. "The farm bureau has been working to reform local taxes for 20 to 25 years. When the opportunity for Act 50 came, many of our county farm bureaus talked to their legislators and held workshops for our members. Every county bureau in the state received Tim's workbook series, and a lot of bureau members told me the materials really helped make them more aware of what local government taxing is all about. Penn State and the bureau really worked well together in getting this information out."

This five-part tax workbook series leads individuals and groups to ask strategic questions and points them to the information they need to arrive at answers. (Click on a publication for more information.)