Oh, those burdensome property taxes! They’re unequal, unfair and unending.

Retirees on fixed incomes feel trapped by ever-rising property tax rates. They fear losing their homes.

Young families feel trapped in apartment housing, the cost of home ownership jacked beyond their budgetary reach.

Now there’s an opportunity for Pennsylvania voters to fight back against property taxes.

The Election Day ballot includes a referendum question that, if approved, paves the way for deep reduction and possible elimination of local property taxes for private home owners.

It’s a typical ballot question, with too many words muddying the issue rather than clarify it: “Shall the Pennsylvania Constitution be amended to permit the General Assembly to enact legislation authorizing local taxing authorities to exclude from taxation up to 100 percent of the assessed value of each homestead property within a local taxing jurisdiction, rather than limit the exclusion to one-half the median assessed value of all homestead property, which is the existing law?”

Currently, local taxing authorities can exempt taxpayers from paying up to 50 percent of the median assessed value of all homes. The proposed change would allow local governments to expand the exemption.Taxing authorities — municipalities, counties and school districtscould exempt all taxpayers from paying any property taxes on their primary residence.

Commercial and industrial properties would still be taxed under the exemption. Rental properties would still be taxed, too. It stands to reason that the change would encourage younger people to buy homes rather than rent.

Across Pennsylvania, property tax collections account for about 30 percent of local and state tax revenue, according to the Tax Foundation, the nation’s leading independent tax policy nonprofit. The state’s tax rates are among the 10th highest in the country, with homeowners payingan average 1.46 percent of their home value in taxes.

In school property taxes alone, Pennsylvanians pay about $14 billion a year. It’s vital revenue that will need to be replaced with money from other sources.

Already, the state legislature is floating bills to increase the state income tax from 3.07 percent to 4.95 percent and raise the sales tax from 6 percent to 7 percent — and remove the exemptions for food and clothing — to make up the difference.

More disturbing is the prospect of elected municipal and school board officials ceding their taxing authority to the state. Considering the state government’s recent track record of late budgets and failed revenue schemes, it might be a bad move ceding any more taxing authority to Harrisburg.

Property taxes are a nuisance. But they are a necessary nuisance. A vote to get rid of them is enticing, but too many potential pitfalls complicate the removal of property taxes.

Without a more concrete plan in place for local taxing authorities to replace revenue lost in the repeal property tax, it’s very difficult to support this referendum.