PITTSBURGH - Pennsylvania taxpayers can find themselves writing nearly half-a-dozen checks this time of year to the state, their counties, their municipalities and their school districts, not to mention the federal government.

It's not only taxing on residents, but the state's multitude of governments spend more than $100 million collecting taxes each year, according to the Governor's Office and the Pennsylvania Economy League.

Taxpayers could save millions if the state collected all property and wage taxes, according to Gerald Cross, a tax expert with the Pennsylvania Economy League, a nonprofit government-policy research group.

State law requires that each community without home-rule authority must elect its own property-tax collector. Pennsylvania towns and school districts also are allowed to hire a separate tax collector for the taxes they levy.

Woodland Hills School District in Pittsburgh, for example, pays 12 municipal tax collectors to collect property taxes and a private firm to collect wage taxes.

"We call it an archaic system. It's a colonial holdover," Cross told a Pittsburgh newspaper in its Sunday editions. "Inefficiencies are built into the current system. It's getting too expensive to bear."

Some tax collectors and experts say it wouldn't be difficult for Pennsylvania to consolidate tax collection like California has. The Golden State has 58 elected tax collectors, while Allegheny County, which includes Pittsburgh, has nearly 130 just for property taxes, according to county Treasurer John Weinstein.

Weinstein said Allegheny County could collect property taxes countywide by making some changes to its computer system.

Meanwhile, the state Department of Revenue could collect wage taxes statewide with few problems, said Steve Kniley, a spokesman for the state agency.

"We do it all the time. This would just mean collecting an extra share," Kniley said.

Although tax collection could be consolidated, many governments are reluctant, saying it would make budget planning difficult.

"Money comes through this office ... on a daily basis. When (towns and school districts) receive money from the state, it's maybe on a quarterly basis," said Mark Burkardt, the tax collector in Unity Township, Westmoreland County, about 30 miles southeast of Pittsburgh.

Then there's the political clout many tax collectors wield.

"Tax collector, in Pennsylvania, is a powerful position. Next to the mayor, who else is elected townwide?" Cross said. "Most people see or have contact with their tax collector. They hold a lot of political influence, and you challenge them at your peril if you're an elected person."