PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE COLUMN: …In almost all of the state’s 501 school districts, the average homeowner pays more today than he or she did in the 2003-04 school year, just before lawmakers legalized casinos, the Trib’s analysis of property tax rates and gambling-funded rebates showed…
Lawmakers promised homeowners an average of $300 a year in property tax relief when they passed the law legalizing 14 casinos statewide on July 4, 2004. The average turned out to be about $180, according to state Department of Education data.
At the same time, property taxes for an average Pennsylvania home increased more than $1,000, according to a Trib analysis that incorporated data from the census, the state Tax Equalization Board and the departments of Education and Revenue. Taxes on the average Pennsylvania home — worth about $104,000 in 2003 and $164,900 in 2013, records show — declined in 15 school districts since the casino law took effect… (more)
