A page from the school funding spreadsheet distributed today by Gov. Tom Wolf’s office. In order, the final three columns represent the total proposed property tax reduction allocation for the 2015-16 school year; the 2012-13 residential real estate tax collected; and the percentage of proposed residential real estate tax reduction for the 2015-16 school year.
Harrisburg residents would see their school property taxes zeroed out if a bold plan proposed today by Gov. Tom Wolf passes the state legislature.
Wolf’s proposed 2016 budget would dramatically change how schools would be funded, as increased income and sales taxes would provide much of the money for public schools. As a result, residential school property taxes in many of the state’s poorer districts would be eliminated, while wealthier districts also would see a reduction.
In Harrisburg, residents would pay no school property tax at all. Even non-resident homeowners would have their taxes reduced under Wolf’s proposed budget.
To pay for his plan, Wolf would raise the state’s income tax to 3.7 percent from 3.07 percent and the sales tax to 6.6 percent from 6 percent. The proposal was a key part of the $29.9 billion spending plan for 2016 that Wolf unveiled today.
“This is quite an exciting day,” said Harrisburg Mayor Eric Papenfuse. “If you take school property taxes to zero for Harrisburg, you’ll see people flocking in to buy properties in the city.”
Papenfuse said he wasn’t sure of the odds of Wolf’s plan being passed, but hoped it would not be summarily rejected by the Republican-controlled legislature.
“He’s building on a Republican House proposal to do something similar,” Papenfuse said.
Wolf’s proposal would not eliminate school property taxes for most suburban jurisdictions, but would substantially lower them.
For instance, the school property tax for Camp Hill residents would fall by about one-third, with a similar decrease for homeowners residing in the Central Dauphin School District.
Historically, property taxes have provided the bulk of school funding in the United States. In recent years, however, some states have begun to look to other ways of funding schools so that the burden is shared more equally among all taxpayers, not just property owners.
