Act 127 Fix (H.850) - Senate Floor
Act 127 Fix (H.850) - H.850 was taken up on Wednesday with a walk-through from Senator Cummings on behalf of the Senate Finance Committee. She notified Senators that she would “be a little longer than I normally would because this bill is trying to solve confusion as to what was happening out there with property taxes and school spending… and why taxes were being capped and uncapped.”
Read moreEducation Spending (H.850) - Feb 16, 2024
On Friday afternoon, Chairwoman Cummings started out the Senate Finance Committee’s review of H.850 by stating that further action would be necessary because “the cost per pupil that is going up in a lot of cases, not your actual spending.” Legislators are looking at school budget spending caps but there are different ways of containing costs.
Read moreEducation Spending (H.850) - Feb 12, 2024
On Monday afternoon, the Joint Fiscal Office (JFO) walked the House Appropriations Committee through a fiscal note of H.850, which would remove the 5% property tax cap in Act 127 and replace it with a step-down mechanism to phase in the property tax hit from 2025 over the next five years. They were unable to calculate the impact of repealing the previous transition mechanism because of its “complex and circular nature,” but the new mechanism will cost the Education Fund $30M in FY2025. JFO pointed out that the property taxes will need to absorb this cost unless another funding source can be found.
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