Your school property taxes are probably rising again. Here's how much — and why
Liana Roadcloud lives in a town where homeowners pay some of the region's highest property tax rates, where the schools struggle academically, and where the fiscal year that begins Friday will bring exactly what she doesn't want: another tax hike.
Liana Roadcloud lives in a town where homeowners pay some of the region's highest property tax rates, where the schools struggle academically, and where the fiscal year that begins Friday will bring exactly what she doesn't want: another tax hike.
The William Penn School District insists it has squeezed every nickel to keep the increase on her tax bill at just under 2 percent. For Roadcloud, that means a $58 bump next year, to $3,091 for a Lansdowne home valued around $70,000.
"People don't mind paying for something if they're getting something in return," said Roadcloud, whose son is a sophomore at Penn Wood High School. "That's not what I feel is happening right now."
William Penn is among the region's most economically challenged districts, but the vote last week by the Delaware County school board to raise taxes gave it at least one thing in common with wealthy school systems on the Main Line and elsewhere in Bucks, Chester, and Montgomery Counties.
By Friday, every Pennsylvania school district is expected to have passed a final budget for the next fiscal year - and it must be balanced. (Philadelphia has its own unique structure, one where the budget and taxing authority fall to city council.)
Over the last decade, districts in the counties that ring the city have raised taxes substantially, an average of 30 percent, or more than $1,000 for a typical household, according to an Inquirer analysis of tax data.
School officials cite a familiar list of reasons: Rising salaries and benefits - particularly pensions - locked in by long-term labor contracts; spiraling costs of state and federal mandates, including special-education programs and charter schools.
"There's no leeway," said Lawrence Feinberg, head of a regional coalition of school board officials. "It's not like the school boards get to decide anything, they just get a bill they have to pay."
Whatever the causes, property owners in parts of the region pay tax rates that often match the highest in New Jersey, which as a state leads the country, according to the National Tax Foundation.
Pennsylvania schools have received fresh infusions of cash from the Wolf administration, and more is promised in the proposed state budget. In Philadelphia, where the last major new tax increase for schools came through a 2014 per-pack cigarette tax, City Council did not seek a boost in funding for 2016-17.
But more than 85 percent of the other districts in southeastern Pennsylvania are raising taxes for the coming school year - an average of 2.7 percent, or just over $120 per typical household.
In the Lower Merion School District, the bill for a home at the median assessed value has risen more than $2,400 in 10 years. This month, its board approved 4-percent rise, pushing the median annual tax bill to $7,100. The Montgomery County district is also consistently ranked among the top public school systems statewide.
One of the few districts that isn't raising taxes, Neshaminy School District in Bucks County, is tapping reserves instead. A board member there warned the decision will ultimately come with a steep price for taxpayers.
About 40 miles southwest, the Southeast Delco School Board last week passed a 2.5-percent increase, which will cost the typical taxpayer about $68 more.
"I don't care if it's $20," said Tony Scott, 65, of Collingdale, who has lived in the district since 2000. "The fact of the matter is, when you're on a fixed income, you ain't getting no more. ... They just go up, they just keep going up."
Scott, who has grandchildren in the system, noted the struggles of Southeast Delco. Its Academy Park High School scored just 56.6 out of a possible 100 in its the Pennsylvanians School Performance Profile - falling into the lowest of five brackets.
"I'm not getting the results that I should get as a taxpayer and with students still in the system," Scott said. "And it doesn't look like as though it's going to change."
Even with tax increases, some districts have been forced to make cuts.
The Octorara Area School District, which has acres and acres of farmland off the rolls and the steepest millage rates in Chester County, is raising taxes 3 percent and eliminating one elementary librarian position. That is beyond frustrating for parent Cari Spoto, who said she is considering moving.
"I'm sick and tired of paying the highest taxes in the county and receiving probably the least amount of service for my money," Spoto said, 37 of Parkesburg. "I'm constantly paying more for less living out here. Some might not have to make lifestyle changes, but I will."
School officials complain that even though the Wolf administration has proposed adding money to the school pot, overall state aid is wanting. The commonwealth ranks near the bottom in the percentage of costs it bears for public education - about 37 percent - and near the top in funding disparities between rich and poor districts, according to national surveys.
Those struggles are an annual reality in places like Southeast Delco.
"The education that we can provide in terms of class size, numbers, is definitely affected by the limited state funding and limited local funding," said Superintendent Stephen Butz. "There's only so much we can raise through our local (taxpayers)."
It remains unclear just how much new state aid schools will get. It took the legislature and Wolf nine months to agree to add $200 million for the 2015-16 fiscal year, a delay that forced districts to borrow near $1 billion.
As of Thursday, the legislature had approved a spending plan that added $200 more million for schools - and the Wolf administration offered no objections. But a final budget still needs to be passed.
The additional money - and only that - would be distributed to districts under a new formula, enacted last May. The factors include a district's poverty level, the number of English-language learners, the size and location of the school system, and its median household income.
It represents an improvement over the old system, said Charlie Lyons, the spokesperson for the Campaign for Fair Education Funding.
"Now we just have to make sure there's enough funding going through that (formula)," Lyons said.
Given last year's budget fiasco, the state's estimates of how much they intended to give districts was of little value this year, said Mark McGuinn, the Lower Moreland Township School District's business manager.
"This year was incredibly difficult to figure out what the state of Pennsylvania was doing," said McGuinn.
But as one of Montgomery County's wealthier districts, Lower Moreland is well equipped to deal with capricious state funding.
Districts such as Southeast Delco have fewer options.
"The new funding formula is helping us, but it's just very small," said Butz, the superintendent. "... It's difficult for us just to provide the basics."
Under a court mandate 31 years ago, New Jersey uses a similar funding formula based on factors like poverty and English language learners.
But now Gov. Chris Christie says it overcompensates. He is calling for a new "fairness formula" that would provide a flat rate of $6,599 per pupil to cut down on taxes and what he calls an urban bias. Democrats have denounced the proposal as unconstitutional and said they intend to block it.
Fairness also remains a challenge in Pennsylvania. Last year, the U.S. Department of Education found its poorest school districts spent 33 percent of what the wealthiest districts spent on its students: the most inequitable ratio in the nation.
Despite the new formula, a coalition of school districts, including William Penn and Upper Darby, are suing the commonwealth over how the funds are distributed. They contend the state has failed to provide enough cash to poor districts, violating the state constitution.
The suit was dismissed by Commonwealth Court but appealed to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. Oral arguments are scheduled for Sept. 13.
While they wait for any possible state aid adjustments, district officials are battling to make due with what they have.
In Neshaminy, that has meant shifting money from reserves to stave off a tax increase.
School board member Bob Feather said this might look good to taxpayers now, but it will put the district in a bad spot next year.
"Are we going to need to raise taxes? Yes," said Feather, who voted last week against the district's final budget. "Next year, raise them more than what we want and it's going to be hard to swallow."