50 school districts in Pennsylvania are getting help with their high property tax burdens

The additional funding for schools with high property tax burdens ranges from $23,000 to over $5 million for districts in Allegheny, Delaware, Monroe, and Montgomery counties.

Thanks to an extra $32 million in state funding, 50 school districts across Pennsylvania with serious property tax burdens will get some additional help.

The additional funding ranges in amount from close to $24,000 for West York Area School District in York County to more than $5 million for East Stroudsburg Area School District in Monroe County.

The supplemental money is going to school districts that have high local taxes compared to the wealth of their residents. A majority of the districts are in Allegheny (15), Delaware (7), and Montgomery (5) counties.

Stroudsburg is among a dozen school districts that will receive more than $1 million, including  Pocono Mountain School District, also located in Monroe County; Penn Hills School District in Allegheny County; and Chichester School District in Delaware County.

The median amount of additional funding is about $330,000 per district.

The additional funding is awarded to school districts based on their “local effort rate,” a metric calculated by dividing the revenue a district raises through local taxes by the market value of property within its borders and the personal income of its residents.

A higher local effort rate means more in additional funding. Districts qualify for the additional funding if, compared with the rest of the state, their local effort rates are in the 90th percentile or above.

School districts must use the money to mitigate or prevent property tax increases, or to reduce debt. This does not necessarily mean property taxes will go down in the districts that received the additional funds. School boards determine property tax increases based on budgetary items and available income.

The additional funding came from an historic $1.1 billion increase in state funding for K-12 education that was approved in this year’s fiscal budget. Democrats who control the House, along with Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro, pushed the increase through, appropriating $32 million for the additional funding to help ease the tax burden in school districts.