{"id":4321,"date":"2015-04-23T10:41:46","date_gmt":"2015-04-23T14:41:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/?p=4321"},"modified":"2015-04-23T10:41:46","modified_gmt":"2015-04-23T14:41:46","slug":"oped-restore-state-tax-exemption-for-active-duty-military","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/?p=4321","title":{"rendered":"Op\/Ed: Restore state tax exemption for active-duty military"},"content":{"rendered":"

“The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive the Veterans of earlier wars were treated and appreciated by their nation.” ~ President George Washington<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

By Tim Gwinn<\/strong>,\u00a0Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Guard Associations<\/i><\/p>\n

\"Tim-Gwinn\"<\/a>

Tim Gwinn<\/p><\/div>\n

For 47 years from 1965 to 2012, a grateful Pennsylvania honored its military members by exempting active-duty military pay from local income taxes. In 2012, despite Pennsylvania\u2019s soldiers, airmen, sailors, and marines\u00a0 serving our military around the world and 91% of the Pennsylvania Guard serving away from family, work and homes on multiple deployments, Pennsylvania ended the 1965 Exemption and made active duty military income subject to local taxes.\u00a0 We are seeking your support to restore the 1965 Exemption.<\/b><\/p>\n

The Pennsylvania National Guard was founded in 1747 when Benjamin Franklin formed the Associators in Philadelphia. The Pennsylvania National Guard is comprised of both the PA Air National Guard (PaANG) and PA Army National Guard (PAARNG).\u00a0 The Pennsylvania National Guard represents a great value in the overall cost of the defense our nation. Your Pennsylvania National Guard stands ready to deploy at a moments notice to protect the citizens of this great Commonwealth and the Citizens of the United States of America. We take this responsibility seriously, and you will never hear word of complaint as we faithfully execute our duties.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When The Guard is called-up, we go.\u00a0 With every crisis, we immediately leave behind families, jobs, community commitments and friends.\u00a0 Not left behind are mortgages, bills, and financial commitments, which these families struggle to meet.\u00a0 As a direct result of these duties and obligations, in 1965 a grateful Pennsylvania provided some tax relief while Guard members battled floods, catastrophes and military engagements over seas and at home.<\/p>\n

With more than 20,000 Pennsylvania National Guard members and thousands of retirees across the Commonwealth getting this legislation passed in both the Senate and\u00a0 House and signed by Governor Tom Wolf is our number one legislative priority.<\/p>\n

You can help by contacting your state representative, senator and Governor Wolf and kindly ask them to Support the Guard, Restore the 1965 Exemption.\u00a0 You can sign up to Support the Guard at http:\/\/goo.gl\/forms\/e5hf1GhkpZ<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0 We greatly appreciate your support.<\/p>\n

Tim Gwinn is the Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Guard Associations, a professional 501(c)(6) organization that represents nearly 20,000 Pennsylvanians who proudly serve their state and nation in the Pennsylvania Army and Air National Guard.\u00a0 You can learn more at:\u00a0 <\/i>www.pngas.org<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive the Veterans of earlier wars were treated and appreciated by their nation.” ~ President George Washington By Tim Gwinn,\u00a0Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Guard Associations For 47 years from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4320,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[2641,778,45,2902],"class_list":["post-4321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","tag-gov-tom-wolf","tag-national-guard","tag-state-legislature","tag-tax-exemption"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4321"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4321\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}