From the PATRIOT-NEWS:
…Harrisburg shows more acute symptoms of afflictions hurting Pennsylvania’s other cities. An astounding 65 percent of the land and 48 percent of the value of such land within the city of Harrisburg is tax exempt.
Our landlocked core communities possess a disproportionate and upwardly creeping percentage of tax-exempt properties, but they are not compensated for the infrastructure and safety costs associated with servicing such concentrations.
This growing dynamic, attended by a perfect storm of other challenges, makes it untenable to balance the budgets of other cities solely through property taxes. In Easton, Lancaster, Reading and York, annual property tax revenues are not enough to pay just for police and fire services, and they just barely cover the public safety costs in Bethlehem…
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