In the near future, I intend to introduce legislation which will provide additional property tax relief for Pennsylvanians.
 
School districts often issue bonds to pay for major capital projects; doing so causes a school district to incur debt. School districts may unilaterally incur debt up to a certain statutory threshold. If a school district wishes to incur debt above the threshold, the electors of the school district must vote to affirm the decision via a referendum. If the electors approve, the debt is referred to as “electoral debt”.
 
In order to pay off debt due to the issuance of bonds, school districts will often increase property taxes. School districts may unilaterally increase property taxes up to their Act 1 Index threshold. If a school district wishes to increase property taxes above this threshold, the electors of the school district must vote to affirm the decision via a referendum. However, a school district may apply to the Department of Education for an exception to the referendum requirement. One of the allowable exceptions is to pay interest and principal on any “electoral debt”. An increase under this clause must be rescinded following the final payment of interest and principal.
 
In summary – school districts are only required to rescind specific bond-related property tax increases if the debt was originally approved by voters via a referendum. For non-referendum bonds, school districts are not required to lower taxes once the debt is retired.
 
My legislation requires that school districts rescind property tax increases following the final payment of interest and principal for any type of bond debt.
 
Please join me in cosponsoring this legislation so that additional property tax relief can be provided to Pennsylvanians.