Pocono property taxes are worst in Pa. (2024)

Relief should be targeted, not statewide, think tank reports

Pennsylvania property tax relief should be targeted to taxpayers in the few school districts — most particularly in Monroe County —with the highest tax burdens, without completely eliminating school property taxes statewide, says a new report.

High property taxes are a problem in only 30 of Pennsylvania’s 500 school districts, according to the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center report released last week.

Monroe County’s four school districts rank among the top five districts statewide for percentage of taxable household income going to pay property taxes.

“To the extent Pennsylvania has a school property tax problem, it is pretty localized,” Budget and Policy Center Director Sharon Ward said.

The Harrisburg think tank said a bill in the General Assembly to replace the school property tax with a combination of a higher and broader sales tax and higher income tax would result in districts statewide receiving $2.6 billion less in funding during the first five years.

In 45 of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties, combined average school, county and municipal property taxes total less than $2,000 per year.

“Pennsylvania should address property tax reform with a scalpel rather than a chainsaw,” Ward said. “Property taxes are high in a limited number of places and for some individuals. A targeted approach, rather than total elimination, can address those concerns without harming our schools.”

Property tax elimination embodied in state Senate and House bills 76 have been championed by local legislators and several Monroe County legislative candidates.

The report calls for better targeting state education aid to districts with the highest property tax burden —including Pocono Mountain, East Stroudsburg, Stroudsburg and Pleasant Valley —while increasing overall state funding, mandating county reassessments to make taxation fairer and providing a new property tax relief program for working-age individuals most in need.

The average total property tax bill in Monroe County is between $3,000 and $4,000.

Households in the Pocono Mountain School District pay 8.19 percent of reported income to school taxes, highest in the state, followed by the 7.76 percent of income going to school taxes paid by East Stroudsburg Area households. Stroudsburg Area households pay the fourth highest percentage (6.05 percent) and Pleasant Valley is fifth at 5.68 percent.

Jim Thorpe Area households in Carbon County rank third with 6.63 percent of household income going to school property taxes. Pike County’s Wallenpaupack Area ranks sixth (5.56 percent) and Delaware Valley (4.71 percent) is 15th.

Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center cautioned that the percentage of local household income going to property taxes may be overstated in Monroe, Pike and Wayne counties, due to vacation homes being included in the residential tax base.

Population growth last decade also played a major role in the state’s 30 highest-taxed districts. This includes the Poconos and southeastern Pennsylvania, along the Maryland border.

“Because Pennsylvania’s education funding system does not consistently count student enrollment growth, these districts are left to rely on local resources,” according to the report. “The Pocono region has seen an influx of suburban and vacation development, but both were hit hard by the recession.”

Across Pennsylvania, the percentage of household income going to property taxes is slightly below average nationally, said report co-author Michael Wood. Pennsylvania property taxes have never exceeded the national average in the last 33 years.

The report concedes that senior citizens on fixed incomes have trouble affording property taxes. Though Pennsylvania’s property tax rebate program has reduced taxes for 250,000 households, the report said the amount of relief is small and hasn’t kept pace with inflation.

“Additionally, no property tax relief is available for non-disabled, working-age adults,” the report states.

The report calls for the state to kick in a larger share of local school funding.

“Increasing the share of state funding, and distributing more state funds to those communities where local taxes are comparatively high, would go a long way in addressing legitimate property tax concerns,” said the report.

“Currently, Pennsylvania has no formula for distributing dollars to school districts,” the report noted. “In the past, local tax effort, including property taxes, was a variable included in the funding formula. A tax effort factor should be considered in any new adequacy funding formula.”