A claim that working Pennsylvanians need to “pay their fair share” all too often bubbles to the surfaces of some of our society’s debates on tax policy.

The rhetoric that surrounds perennial pushes to eliminate or significantly reduce property tax burdens in Pennsylvania is one place this claim sometimes surfaces, municipal officials’ pursuit of greater latitude for cities and boroughs to assess heavier taxes on payroll is another.

The reality is that working Pennsylvanians — and working Americans, particularly the middle class — pay thousands of dollars a year in federal income taxes and thousands more, directly and through the employer portion indirectly, in Social Security and Medicare taxes.

And then pay more to Harrisburg for the state’s income tax and, in many cases, more to communities for municipal income or payroll taxes.

We remain open-minded about many plans and proposals to reduce the burden property taxes place on homeowners. But we also remain skeptical about the logic of shifting those burdens onto the employed through higher earned income taxes or more payroll taxes.

We especially are skeptical that such a shift would ultimately be a fair burden on hard-working families when it seems to be predicated on a fantasy that men and women who hold down jobs are somehow shirking their share of Americans’ and Pennsylvanians’ responsibilities — a fantasy that is particularly absurd in the month of April.