Congratulations to state Sen. Michael A. O’Pake, who has heard the demands of the people throughout the commonwealth and proposed legislation that would eliminate school-imposed property taxes.

More important O’Pake’s three-bill package, which was introduced last week, would shift the burden of financing our public schools from property owners to those who can most afford to pay: people with annual incomes greater than $100,000.

We have been calling for such a measure for years, but legislators have been more interested in halfway measures or those that would shift the burden to a sales tax, which would impact those who could least afford to pay.

O’Pake said his proposal, combined with the anticipated $1 billion to be raised from slot parlors, would be sufficient to eliminate all property taxes imposed by school districts.

That is what the public wants: not a reduction, but the elimination of the real-estate levy.

To replace the revenue lost, taxpayers with incomes higher than $100,000 would be taxed an additional 0.5 percent for each $50,000 increment up to $400,000.

That would put Pennsylvania in line with 42 other states that impose a graduated income tax.

According to O’Pake, 90 percent of taxpayers would pay less under his plan than they pay under the current system. And the tax burden on the remaining 10 percent of residents would be lessened by the elimination of the property tax.

O’Pake’s proposal would require a constitutional amendment, but one of the bills proposes an emergency amendment that — if approved by a two-thirds majority of the General Assembly — could reach the voters for a final decision in short order.

But ultimately a constitutional change would be needed to prevent the real-estate levy from being reintroduced once it is eliminated.

“The bottom line,” O’Pake said on the Senate floor when introducing his proposal, “our constitutional obligation is to provide for both a thorough and efficient system of public education in Pennsylvania, and I believe we can do a much better job on both counts, just as we must find a more equitable way to pay.”

There is only one problem. O’Pake, a Reading Democrat, is in the minority in the state Senate and will have little say about whether his legislation ever receives serious consideration.

Although an informal poll taken by O’Pake indicated 75 percent of the respondents in his district liked the proposal, expect some Republicans to oppose it as a tax increase.

State Rep. Samuel E. Rohrer, who has called for a shift from the real-estate tax to a sales tax, called O’Pake’s proposal an absolutely tremendous tax increase on small employers.

Actually the bills would increase taxes only on those who earn more than $100,000, whether they are employers or employees, as opposed to a sales tax, which would impact even the poorest person in the commonwealth.

We call on state Sens. John C. Rafferty Jr. and Mike Folmer, both Republicans who represent portions of Berks County, to support this legislation, which would eliminate the property tax and shift the burden to those who are most able to pay.

We also encourage voters to watch the progress of this three-bill package very closely and remember next year on Election Day who supported genuine tax reform and who stood on the sidelines or, worse, opposed progress.