The 2010-2011 Act 1 Index
What is the potential increase in your school property tax for 2010?
The Act 1 Index
is the allowable percentage increase in millage (property taxes) for each
Pennsylvania school district before exceptions or voter referendum. The
index is determined annually by the Pennsylvania Department of Education
(PDE) using an arcane formula that includes such factors as the average
weekly wage, the federal employment cost index, and the market value/personal
income aid ratio.
For the 2010-2011 school year the average increase in the Act 1 index for all Pennsylvania school districts is 3.8%; the largest increase is 4.7% with the smallest at 2.9%. This increase is interesting because during the one year period September 2008 to September 2009 the Consumer Price Index (CPI), an inflation measure, was a deflationary -1.3% (U.S. Department of Labor, September 2009).
The allowable increase in the Act 1 index is not necessarily the actual amount of increase that may be imposed by your school district. Some districts that carefully control costs may be able to increase taxes less than the index, while others may apply for an exception by the PDE to raise taxes more than the allowable index or put the increase to a voter referendum.
In 2007 a total of 210 Pennsylvania school districts applied for, and were granted, exceptions to raise property taxes above their index. That was 42% of the 501 Pennsylvania school districts that raised taxes substantially above the allowed index without the need for taxpayer approval. There were no tax increase referendums on the ballot that year for any school district in Pennsylvania. Further information on the Act 1 index, including the list of items that will qualify a school district for an exception to the index, is available on the PTCC Act 1 page here.
The allowable 2010-2011 Act 1 increase for each Pennsylvania school district is available as an Acrobat (PDF) chart 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.
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