PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — School District of Philadelphia officials are sounding the alarm about some City Council tax relief proposals that would slash funding to the district.
“Cutting staffing positions, in the long term, would be inevitable,” according to Board of Education member Mallory Fix Lopez, if Council’s proposals get approved.
Competing tax relief proposals from the mayor and Council members are among the issues that have to be resolved before Council adopts a budget. The 2023 fiscal year begins July 1, so the budget must pass by June 23, the last Council meeting before its summer break.
The Kenney administration first proposed a package of tax relief legislation last month, when finance officials announced that new property assessments — the first in three years — would raise residential taxes by 41%.
The administration proposed three tax relief measures.
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One would expand the Homestead Exemption, an existing tax break for owner-occupied homes.
Instead of the first $45,000 in value being exempted from property taxes, the expansion would exempt the first $65,000, saving taxpayers an additional $280 per year on average.
A second measure would lift the cap on the Longtime Owner Occupied Program (LOOP), increasing spending on the program by about $5 million per year.
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Kenney also proposed reducing the wage tax by about 0.1% for residents, which would have no impact on school district funding.
Council members quickly weighed in with proposals of their own.
Kenyatta Johnson’s proposal is the one district officials fear the most. His package does the mayor’s one better, doubling the Homestead Exemption to $90,000 and lifting the cap on LOOP by $10 million.
School District of Philadelphia Chief Finance Director Uri Monson said that if Johnson’s proposal passes, the city’s contribution to the district would be cut in half, from $94 million under the mayor’s plan to $47 million. He said the district has already passed its budget, counting on $94 million which was the most current estimate available at the time.
“This is about making sure we have the resources to make investments in students,” Monson said.
“Students can’t be yo-yoed. They’re in the system for 13 years, and you want to make sustainable investments so they’re not being yo-yoed.”
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Johnson said his priority is on homeowners.
“I want to make sure that the most vulnerable population of homeowners receive a level of property tax relief,” he said, “making sure that a senior doesn’t have to make a choice between their prescription drugs or paying their property taxes, or some young family doesn’t have to make a choice between day care and paying their property taxes.”
Asked about schoolchildren, Johnson added, “if a young person doesn’t have a place to live, it’s going to have an impact on them as well.”
Johnson said he was open to discussions with the district.
“We have some difficult decisions to make,” he said. “I support our Philadelphia school district, and I also support homeowners who are going to see a significant increase in their property tax, so we’ll work it out as we always have done in the past.”