Your chance to express your view is coming up on Tuesday, March 12, when Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman brings his statewide listening tour to Montgomery County.

Shortly after being sworn into office in January, Fetterman announced he will visit counties throughout Pennsylvania to gather input on the possibility of legalizing recreational marijuana in the state.

“I will be traveling to all 67 counties to listen to everyone’s thoughts whether they agree with this initiative or have recommendations,” Fetterman said when he announced the tour. “We want to make sure all Pennsylvanians have a say.”

The Montgomery County session is scheduled from 6 to 7:30 p.m. in the auditorium of Perkiomen Valley High School, 509 Gravel Pike (Route 29), Collegeville, PA 19426

“More and more states are successfully implementing marijuana legalization, especially those surrounding Pennsylvania, and we should learn from their efforts, and better understand the potential fiscal impacts of this reality before taking any collective action,” Gov. Tom Wolf said when Fetterman announced the start of the listening tour.

All tour stops are open to the public, whether you want to offer an opinion or not.

Any Montgomery County resident unable to attend the March 12 meeting can leave a comment about legalizing recreational marijuana on Gov. Tom Wolf’s website at https://www.governor.pa.gov/ and the Lieutenant Governor’s Official Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/LGFetterman/

The governor’s office said in a recent release the first county stops in Dauphin and Cumberland counties have been well-attended and more than 12,000 comments have been left on governor’s website and the lieutenant governor’s Facebook page concerning the legalization of marijuana.

Additional tour dates for southeastern Pennsylvania counties will be announced as soon as they are scheduled. At least three county tour stops have been postponed so far because of inclement weather and will be rescheduled.

We’ve heard these promises before.

In 2002, Rendell, candidate for governor, promised to cut everyone’s property taxes by 30 percent standing on his head.

In his first year in office, Rendell developed amnesia about property taxes. Instead, he increased the state income tax by 10 percent.

In 2004, Rendell promised property-tax relief when he signed Act 72 into law. It didn’t happen.

In 2005, Rendell developed amnesia again, but he did impose the $52-a-year payroll tax on just about every worker in the state.

In 2006, Rendell promised property-tax relief when he signed Act 1 into law. Act 1 would have raised the income tax in return for lowering property taxes. Voters didn’t buy into the tax-shift scheme. Another failed attempt at tax relief.

Here we are at the end of 2007 – five years into Rendell’s term – and not one penny from gambling has been returned to Pennsylvania residents as property-tax cuts.

The Legislature, which has House Bill 1275 (the School Property Tax Elimination Act of 2007) before it, failed to act on it before adjourning for its 32-day Christmas vacation.

Now we have a prediction from Rendell’s budget chief that some homeowners will see property-tax cuts at the end of 2008 or sometime in 2009 because gambling revenues have reached the minimum level to trigger tax cuts.

The operative word here is “minimal.” The state’s six operating slot parlors have kicked in $506 million so far into a fund set up for property-tax relief. The fund needs to reach $570 million by April in order for the state to begin distributing money to homeowners.

But Rendell promised $1 billion in tax relief when he signed the bill bringing casino gambling to Pennsylvania.

It will take several more years to reach that level. And we’re talking about a few hundred dollars in tax reduction. So if you pay $3,000 in property taxes each year, you might get back $300. In the meantime, there’s nothing to prevent your local school district from raising property taxes by hundreds of dollars… year after year.

So pardon me if I don’t do a jig. The promise of property-tax cuts through gambling revenues is a mirage.

The only way to reform Pennsylvania’s antiquated property-tax system for funding public education is total elimination, which is what House Bill 1275 proposes.

Only 44 legislators (mostly Republicans) in the 203-member House of Representatives have signed on as co-sponsors of HB 1275 so far.

If you live in any of the following Southeastern Pennsylvania counties, you might want to ask these legislators why they won’t support the elimination of property taxes. None of the following are listed as co-sponsors of House Bill 1275:

BERKS COUNTY: David Kessler (D-130), Doug Reichley (R-134) and Tim Seip (D-125).

BUCKS COUNTY: Paul I. Clymer (R-145), Gene DiGirolamo (R-18), John T. Galloway (D-140), Chris King (D-142), Anthony J. Melio (D-141), Bernie O’Neill (R-29), Scott A. Petri (R-178), Marguerite Quinn (R-143) and Katharine M. Watson (R-144).

CHESTER COUNTY: Thomas H. Killion (R-168), Duane Milne (R-167), Chris Ross (R-158) and Carole Rubley (R-157).

DELAWARE COUNTY: William F. Adolph Jr. (R-165), Mario J. Civera Jr. (R-26), Robert C. Donatucci (D-185), Thomas H. Killion (R-168), Thaddeus Kirkland (D-9), Bryan R. Lentz (D-161), Nicholas A. Micozzie (R-163), Ron Raymond (R-162), Greg Vitali (D-166) and Ronald G. Waters (D-191).

MONTGOMERY COUNTY: Lawrence Curry (D-154), Michael Gerber (D-148), Robert Godshall (R-53), Kate Harper (R-61), George Kenney Jr. (R-170), Daylin Leach (D-149), Kathy Manderino (D-194), Jay Moyer (R-70), Thomas Murt (R-152), Josh Shapiro (D-153), Rick Taylor (D-151) and Mike Vereb (R-150).

For more information about HB 1275, visit the Pennsylvania Taxpayers Cyber Coalition Web site at http://ptcc.us.

If you want to see genuine property-tax relief in Pennsylvania, you have to pressure your state legislators (especially the Democrats) to support House Bill 1275.

Tony Phyrillas writes about politics for The Pottstown Mercury. Send e-mail to tphyrillas@pottsmerc.com.