It's time for Gov. Ed Rendell and lawmakers to stop expressing disappointment over the overwhelming rejection of Act 72 by Pennsylvania school districts. Four-fifths of the state's 501 school systems gave a thumbs-down to the flawed law, whose requirements - especially the provision requiring voter referendums for tax hikes exceeding the inflation rate - left little doubt that the law would not be happily embraced by local-level school officials.

Billed as the solution to ensure property tax reductions across the commonwealth, the law instead exposed the naivete of the governor and legislators who proclaimed that Act 72 was a good law and in the best interests of those who pay property taxes.

When will the "light bulb" go on in the minds of the governor and lawmakers that the easiest way to keep property taxes in check - or to effect reductions - is to dispense slot-machine profits to the school districts in a way similar to how the former federal revenue-sharing program was handled? Federal revenue sharing minimized tax increases for years, prior to the program's elimination.

Instead of keeping Act 72 on the books, the state should develop a fair formula for distribution of the available gambling profits and then allow each school district's taxpayers to serve as "tax police" to ensure that property taxes are kept in check or reduced.

Such a plan would not be muddied by requirements such as the stipulated increase in the local earned-income tax to compensate for lost real-estate-tax revenue. Nor would there be the hassles or protracted debate that would surely accompany tax referendums.

Likewise, there would not be the danger that taxpayers would reject higher-than-the-inflation-rate tax increases that were genuinely needed.

Rendell and the General Assembly merit abundant criticism for fashioning the flawed Act 72, when such an easy solution to distributing the eventual slot-machine-gambling profits - expected about 2007 - was and is available.

Next year is a gubernatorial election year, and all state House seats and many Senate seats will be up for election.

Therefore, the coming months will be the ideal time for state residents to demand Act 72's repeal and demand that a simple, no-strings-attached slots-revenue distribution be implemented.

That would pave the way for spirited school board election campaigns addressing the need to keep taxes under control and, in many instances, to reduce taxes.

The state legislature and governor's office shouldn't strive to be dictators over local school district financial decisions. They can't even manage state affairs that are their responsibility in an efficient, timely manner. Consider the annual budget morass.

Harrisburg has a penchant for making simple things difficult. Distribution of slot-machine-gambling profits via Act 72 will always hold a lofty place among boondoggles that could easily have been avoided.