Despite amendments to Act 1 in 2011, school districts across the commonwealth continue accrue massive reserve funds. Districts ended the 2023-2024 school year with more than $7.4 billion in general fund reserves; these reserves have grown by over $2 billion since 2020-2021. Put simply, too many school districts max out their ability to increase taxes year after year regardless of actual need or how much they have sitting in the bank.

A 2023 Auditor General report noted, “we believe district practices circumvent the intent of the [Public School Code] threshold to keep districts from increasing taxes while sufficient appropriable funds are available.”

To address this problem, I will be introducing legislation requiring all proposed school district tax increases be put to referendum. If school districts want to extract more revenue from taxpayers, then they’ll need to make their case directly to the folks paying the bills.

I hope you will join me in sponsoring this important piece of legislation.