Two members of our state Senate, Sen. Doug Mastriano, R-Fayetteville and Sen. Chris Gebhard, R-North Cornwall Township, have yet again introduced legislation to address property taxes assessed by school districts.

The latest proposal would begin the process of amending the state Constitution to prohibit school districts from collecting property taxes.

The process for amending the state Constitution would require multiple votes in the state Legislature over a period of years and then a statewide ballot referendum. As such, the proposal remains at an early enough stage that the matter of what replaces property taxes isn’t yet addressed.

We are skeptical that property taxes can be eliminated entirely and question instead if other means of property tax relief are more realistic or practical.

We remain opposed to any plan that covers the shortfall from eliminating or reducing property taxes by increasing the state’s income taxes.

There are, as we have editorialized in the past, other ways to deliver property tax relief: Consolidating school districts to eliminate redundancies, reducing bureaucratic or “administrative” positions in our school systems and small increases to other state taxes and fees — more specifically the state’s sales tax.

With these alternatives and others in mind, we cannot see how Pennsylvania can justify higher tax rates on men and women engaged in the one activity our government — and our state as a whole — should be most clearly encouraging: Working.

We believe that our state’s future depends on attracting both employers to create jobs and men and women to fill those jobs and contribute to our communities. We are frankly less concerned — and believe we should all be less concerned — with whether those working men and working women are homeowners or rental tenants. And we have concerns that increases in our state’s taxes on income — specifically earned income, though under current laws Pennsylvania does not distinguish salaries and wages from other income — fails to reflect that our state values work.

So while we support the concept of property tax relief, we also recognize that it must be secondary to consistently, comprehensively demonstrating that Pennsylvania respects and appreciates those who work for a living.