Last week we released our first report on 2014 on Act 1 of 2006 and how it has played out in Allegheny County’s school districts. We used the example of a home assessed at $100,000 (rising to $120,000 after the reassessment took effect), and, measured against millage rates and the estimated homestead relief provided by slot machines, tried to determine where taxes would have risen and where they would have fallen from 2006-07 through 2013-14.
The 2014-15 school fiscal year is about to begin in a few weeks, and as tax rates are set there are the estimates for homestead relief by district for the fiscal year. The range in Allegheny County goes from $398 in Duquesne to $81 in Avonworth. A quick examination of the tax relief dynamics in these two districts at the ends of the distribution in worthwhile.
In Duquesne, the total amount of tax relief generated by gaming has stayed the same from FY09 through FY15—about $367,000 from state to the district. In FY09, the number of approved homesteads/farmsteads that were eligible for relief was 1,068. For FY15, the number of homesteads/farmsteads had fallen by 145 to 923. Thus, with fewer taxpayers requesting a homestead exemption the amount of estimated relief in Duquesne rose from $344 to $398 from FY09 to FY15.
In Avonworth total gaming money for homestead relief has likewise remained the same—around $246,000. There the number of homesteads/farmsteads rose by 400 over the years, meaning the amount of relief has fallen from $95 in FY09 to $81 for FY15.
