Property-tax relief from gambling revenue down slightly in Philadelphia suburbs
Property-tax rebates coming from gaming revenue will be down a few dollars next year for residents of the Philadelphia suburbs.
Property-tax rebates coming from gaming revenue will be down a few dollars next year for residents of the Philadelphia suburbs.
Property-tax relief varies by school district and is weighted to give qualifying residents in high-poverty districts more. People who have registered to participate in the rebate program do not receive checks but receive reduced tax bills.
Philadelphia's share of the gaming money that pays for the rebates is used instead to reduce the city wage tax. Next year's amount - about $86.3 million - is about the same as this year's.
In Delaware County's Chester Upland district, those who have signed up for the rebate program will see their tax bills reduced $631 - the most in the area and a dollar less than this year's amount. Those in Montgomery County's Upper Merion district will see tax bills cut $72 - the least in the area and the same as last year.
On average, area property owners in the program will get a rebate of about $242 - $8 less than this year - because of a small drop in the state allocation for property-tax relief and because more people are sharing the money.
In some districts, they will see their rebate cut by more. In six - Abington, Cheltenham, Colonial, Council Rock, Jenkintown, and Wissahickon - the decrease is $25 or more; in Jenkintown, it is $68.
Residents of 10 districts, all in Delaware County, will receive single-digit increases in their rebates. The district with the greatest increase is Wallingford-Swarthmore, where the rebate will be $5 more than this year.
In all, 613,000 households in the Philadelphia area will split $138 million in gaming revenue for property-tax rebates, using money the state receives under Act 1, the state legislation that legalized gaming.
The amount of money allocated for tax relief in the area is about $4.3 million less than this year; statewide, the allocation is down about $4.5 million. The number of people in Philadelphia's Pennsylvania suburbs qualifying for the program increased by about 2,700.
The deadline to apply for inclusion in the program was March 1, so it is closed for next school year. Once enrolled in the program, people do not have to reapply if they have not moved.
The wage tax this year in Philadelphia is 3.93 percent for residents and 3.5 percent for nonresidents.
Statewide, gaming revenue will provide $612.1 million in property- and wage-tax relief next school year. An additional $164.1 million in gaming money also will go to a separate program, the senior-citizen property-tax and rent-relief program, which is for low-income residents.