Rep. DeLuca urges state Education Department to deny Penn Hills School District request to increase property taxes

State Rep. Tony DeLuca (D-Allegheny) sent a letter recently to state Secretary of Education Pedro A. Rivera, urging the Department of Education to deny a request by Penn Hills School District to increase property taxes beyond the established state index.

DeLuca noted that administrative shortcomings and misspending resulted in $172 million in debt and placed the district in state-mandated financial recovery status. The district is projecting an approximately $11 million budget shortfall for the upcoming year. Debt service is expected to be 12 percent of total expenditures. During the years 2016-17 and 2017-18, the district spent approximately $6 million above its budget each year, DeLuca noted in his letter.

The district requires the approval of a waiver application from the state Department of Education to raise property taxes above the state index. In his letter, DeLuca strongly advised the department not to give such approval.

“I am asking you to deny this request and require the school district to reduce the tax-rate increase to no more than the index, or require it to submit a referendum question for voter approval in the next election,” DeLuca said. “The Act 1 index was deliberately put in statute to limit excessive tax increases, and it should be allowed to serve its purpose as designed.”