As of February 5th, 23 of the County’s 43 school districts (a shade over half) have passed resolutions stating that school property taxes will not increase more than the allowable index permitted under Act 1 of 2006. That does not mean taxes won’t go up in those districts in the fiscal year that starts on the first of July, just that they won’t rise more than the index permits. Districts that don’t pass resolutions are giving fair warning that taxes could go higher than the Act 1 index, usually with the permission of the Commonwealth through allowable tax increase exceptions or, very rarely, putting an above-index increase on the ballot for voter approval.
The Brentwood Borough School District is not one of the 23 districts, and has indicated that it if it were not to dip into reserves or make any cuts it would take a hike of 8.5 mills above the current millage rate of 24.8044 to make the coming year’s budget whole. The district had an enrollment of 1,310 by the latest state count (only six districts in the County had smaller enrollments) and with expenditures of $20.8 million the per-pupil expenditure in the district approached $16,000.
Let’s assume that the full tax increase goes through, boosting the millage rate from 24.8044 to 33.3044 next year. That would raise taxes by $500 a year on a home assessed at $60,000. Brentwood has consistently been at the top of the list of districts in the County in terms of homestead relief from gaming money: a typical homeowner in the district not qualifying for any other relief (based on income or age of the owner) has seen a reduction in school property taxes ranging around $240 based on state estimates. If the amount of gaming money available for relief and the number of homesteads applying for relief stays constant, the taxes on that home would increase from $1,248 to $1,758 after accounting for the reduction brought about by gaming. If the owner of the $60,000 home was not a qualified homestead the taxes would rise from $1,448 to $1,998.
More likely than seeing the full effects of the increase, it is possible that there will be some combination of cuts and a tax hike, the latter still possibly above the index by virtue of the exception process.
