Property tax bill leaves questions for schools

If a bill that would allocate money from a different revenue source to fund school districts is reintroduced in state government, some local school administrators said it might not be a good thing.

Bellefonte Area Director of Fiscal Affairs Ken Bean said it’s hard to trust the state.

Senate Bill 76 was voted down Monday, but it isn’t necessarily dead.

It called for the elimination of property taxes that fund schools, and replaced them with higher sales and income taxes.

A report from the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center said property tax elimination would have raised taxes on the middle class to give wealthy homeowners and businesses in wealthy communities a tax break.

“Both targeted approaches would be better for the middle class, but the (Gov. Tom) Wolf proposal would be the best for moderate-income homeowners and would also cut non-residential property taxes the most in lower-income communities, a potential boost to community revitalization,” the report said.

But local school district administrators are undecided on the topic.

“It is a tough subject,” Bean said. “On one hand, it would be nice to eliminate property taxes, but on the other hand it would make the district dependent on the state.”

Bean said it would also make it difficult to “plan for anything when we cannot project what we might get from the state.”

“Difficulties, too, if the state gives us funding and then mandates how the money can be used (like the) Ready to Learn grant from last year,” Bean said. “If we would have a year like now, the district would not be able to function without a budget from the state.”

The Ready to Learn grant helps fund public schools that focus on student achievement and academic success. That money supports schools where students prove to be reading and math-ready by third grade, and helps allow additional training to teachers to support early literacy STEM — science, technology, engineering and mathematics — and other customized student needs.

As of Wednesday, the state is 148 days past due on passing a budget.

There’s a “problem with the state allocating funds to different districts as well — majority of funds go to Philadelphia and/or Pittsburgh,” Bean said. “Bond issues for building renovations ... would be very difficult without a dependable revenue stream to fund it.”

The CDT reached out to Bald Eagle, Penns Valley and State College area school districts, but they did not respond.

This story was originally published November 24, 2015 at 6:39 PM with the headline "Property tax bill leaves questions for schools."