A disgruntled Pennsylvania man protested his $7,143 tax bill by paying it—in single dollar bills, for a video he later posted to
Last week, Forks Township, Penn., resident Robert Fernandes took his wife and three children to the Forks Township tax office to pay school taxes for a district his kids don’t attend, according to
“We don't even use the public system, yet I am being forced to pay all this money into a public school system," Fernandes said. "I don't think that's really either fair or just or even ethical. It would be the equivalent if McDonald's were to force vegetarians to pay for their cheeseburgers."
Fernandes also said he got a great deal on a short sale when he bought the home he moved into a year ago, but his annual property taxes total nearly $10,000.
He documented his unusual payment method via YouTube video to create a visual for taxpayers to see how much in taxes was “being stolen from them,” he told the news outlet.
Fernandes told tax collector Anne Bennett-Morse that he did not mean to be difficult, but balked when she asked to count the sum at a nearby bank, stressing that his hard-earned money “needs to be seen.”
It now has been by nearly 40,000 YouTube viewers and presumably Forks Supervisors chairman Erik Chuss, who responded to lehighvalleylive.com that residents with concerns should bring them to elected officials, attend public meetings or run for office themselves.
Fernandes said his filmed protest wasn’t about politics, but morality and ethics, explaining that if he retires by age 50, it would cost him an estimated $400,000 in property taxes to remain in his home until age 90.
Bennett-Morse later said it was the first time in her tenure anyone paid their bill in single dollars or change.
