2009 Property tax "relief" from gambling revenues
On May 1, 2009,
the Pennsylvania Department of Education website posted a chart of estimated
slots-funded individual school property tax reductions for Pennsylvania
homeowners in 2009. Depending on your school district, your reduction
will be between $32 and $641. Results for some counties are not yet available
because homestead data has not been received from those counties. The
charts will be updated when additional information becomes available.
The chart is here
as an Acrobat (PDF) file or here
as an Excel spreadsheet.
Again, this is only an estimate. Each school district will determine the actual amount of property tax relief for each homestead and farmstead after it determines its 2009-2010 real estate tax rate. In many cases your “relief” will be less than your increase in school property tax this year and will be nowhere near the 10% reduction touted by the state.
Please note that:
- You will not receive the reduction if you have not applied for the
homestead exemption.
- Every homeowner in each school district receives the same amount of
relief.
- You will not receive a check for this relief; it will be deducted from
your school property tax bill.
To compare this year's estimated relief with the estimate for last year, the 2008 results are here.
Be aware that the Acrobat link connects to a PDF file. If you cannot view it, you may need to download the Adobe Acrobat Reader or Foxit Reader. The free Acrobat reader is available here. The much smaller and less intrusive free Foxit PDF Reader is available here. These links will open in a new window. If you are using an older version of Acrobat Reader you may receive an error message indicating that the file is corrupted. If this occurs please update your Acrobat software or use the Foxit Reader.
These rebates are just more propaganda to allow the politicians to brag about the “historic” relief that they’ve so generously given to us and fall far short of the promised "huge" property tax relief.
State Representative Sam Rohrer, the prime sponsor of HB 1275, the School
Property Tax Elimination Act, recently issued a press release about
this year's rebate. The original press release is available here.
Rohrer says Governor's Property Tax ‘Relief' Announcement Misses
Point
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Lawmaker notes Pennsylvanians are no closer to truly owning their
homes
While the governor on Monday touted the approximately $200 in average
property tax relief that Pennsylvania homeowners will receive as a result
of legalized gambling, Rep. Samuel E. Rohrer (R-Berks) said the announcement
fails to address the underlying right of Pennsylvanians to own their homes.
“At the end of the day, not one single Pennsylvanian is any closer
to truly owning their home as a result of legalized gambling,” Rohrer
said. “The only way Pennsylvanians can truly own their homes is
if the state completely eliminates the school property tax. Until that
happens, homeowners are merely renting their homes in exchange for school
property tax payments. After all, if a homeowner fails to pay, the government
will evict them.”
Gov. Ed Rendell on Monday announced the state Property Tax Relief Fund
had accumulated enough money from gambling to provide approximately $770
million in property tax relief in 2009. Rohrer said that is simply proof
that people continue to lose money at Pennsylvania casinos.
“In order for homeowners to win, the Pennsylvanians who put their
money in slot machines must lose,” Rohrer said. “The entire
system is built around creating more dependence. It seems that the governor
desires that homeowners, from senior citizens to working families, become
dependent on this state tax ‘relief’ program in order to be
able to pay their school property tax bill rather than fixing the problem
so they can keep their home. Schools are increasingly dependent on people
losing their hard-earned money as the way to fund our public schools.
Compulsive gamblers are then encouraged to look to government services
to help them quit the addiction government encouraged them to start. The
whole thing is set up so that people look toward government for the answers
to their problems when, in fact, the existing school property tax system
is the real problem.”
Act 1, signed into law by the governor in June 2006, allocates funds from
gaming revenue into the Property Tax Relief Fund. Each year, the governor’s
Office of the Budget must certify the fund’s balance on April 15.
If the fund contains at least $570 million, the state can distribute the
funds for property tax relief. Last year, the fund provided an average
of $169 per household in relief.
“For many homeowners, the $200 in so-called ‘relief’
they will receive is less than the amount their property tax bills were
raised since 2006,” Rohrer said. “Pennsylvania homeowners
deserve more than the false hope the governor’s gambling scheme
has to offer.”
That is why Rohrer is continuing to pursue his comprehensive school finance
reform plan known as the School Property Tax Elimination Act (SPTEA),
a thoroughly vetted plan based on the Department of Revenue’s numbers
calling for the total elimination of school property taxes on owner-occupied
primary residences. Under Rohrer’s plan, schools would be funded
primarily from an expanded sales and use tax at the current 6 percent
rate. The money would be set aside for distribution through an Educational
Operating Fund. Food, clothing, utilities, and other essential services
would remain exempt from the sales tax.
“The School Property Tax Elimination Act is the only current solution
that addresses the problems of property taxes in a real way,” Rohrer
said. “It’s a predictable, equitable, and stable system of
funding our schools while protecting taxpayers from the out-of-hand increases
in school property taxes. We can no longer spend time on proposals like
Act 1 that can never provide true relief. Taxpayers deserve a real solution.”