TAXED TO THE MAX
UPPER DARBY RESIDENTS, SCHOOL DISTRICTS ALL STRUGGLING WITH RISING PROPERTY TAXES
The issue of how to appropriately fund education has been a decades-long conundrum that has seen well-attended school board meetings, lawsuits, rallies and even doses of frustration shared by all sides of the debate.
Each year as school districts must craft their budgets, they are pitted like a sporting match against property owners, who carry one of the largest burdens in the country when Pennsylvania is compared to other states. According to PA Schools Work, the Keystone State ranks 47th in the country for providing 37 percent of basic education and 25 percent of special education costs to the districts.
The bulk of the rest lie on local taxpayers, who find the ever burgeoning burden to be a challenge at the least.
Chris Onesti grew up in a row home on Blanchard Road in Drexel Hill and he recalled his thoughts as he walked past the big, stone homes on the other side of Garrett Road.
“I always thought, ‘Living in one meant you made it,’” he said.
In 2011, his dream came true.
He was able to buy a four-bedroom home on a 6,000-square-foot lot on Edmonds Avenue for $350,000.
“I love my house,” Onesti said. “I’ve wanted this home. This is the home I always dreamt of owning.”
But, now, each week, he has to confront some serious thoughts about being in this place.
“It’s a horrible decision,” Onesti said. “You don’t want to make that decision but it’s getting to that point for a lot of us that we have to re-evaluate.”
For now, he still lives there.
Yet, he said, it gets difficult as he said his house’s worth is now in the $200,000s and taxes keep increasing. In 2016, his taxes were just under $10,000.
That year, he also appealed his assessment and won.
“(We) got a short reprieve,” Onesti said, “but then from ‘17 to ‘18, our taxes went up 14 percent. I don’t know about you but we didn’t get a 14 percent raise that year.”
Not having children and with many of his neighbors sending their children to private school, Onesti said
“This impacts us very negatively in that at the current tax rate we do not see how we could possibly retire in our home since we spent about $100,000 in repairs over the past three years and our home value did not increase but our taxes went up. This would likely have the result of our home having less fair market value today than when we purchased it.” — Ronald Pelc, of Edmonds Avenue, Drexel Hill, on increasing propery taxes
frequent discussions revolve on whether to stay or not.
“Now, most conversations are, ‘Did you hear soand-so is leaving?’ ‘Did you see so-and-so’s house is for sale?’ ‘Did you hear there is another foreclosure?’ and ‘What do you think I can get for my house?’” he said.
Ronald Pelc is one of Onesti’s neighbors on Edmonds Avenue, although he moved into the neighborhood just three years ago.
Last year, Pelc’s taxes were approximately $11,000.
He explained they made repairs such as adding a bathroom in their basement so his aging mother could move in with them before she died in March.
“We were then subsequently penalized by Upper Darby imposing an extra $2,000 to my taxes,” he said.
“It’s certainly a challenge to be in two schools. The difficulty in some ways is the stress on both buildings by not having a full-time administrator. I’ve had to adjust my style and rely more on other people. If I’m not here, somebody still has to do it. The responsibilities are the same whether there is one student or 500.” — Janet L. Braker, a longtime educator who was assigned to be principal for both Aldan and Colwyn elementary schools in the William Penn School District
The Basic Education Funding Formula was passed in 2015 and evaluates districts based on wealth, number of children who live in poverty, the ability of the district to raise revenues and other factors in determining how funds should be distributed. Upon its passage, the formula was to only be applied to new monies being distributed to school districts.
Right now, he and his wife can’t imagine how they’d be able to stay in their home long-term.
“This impacts us very negatively in that at the current tax rate we do not see how we could possibly retire in our home since we spent about $100,000 in repairs over the past three years and our home value did not increase but our taxes went up,” Pelc said. “This would likely have the result of our home having less fair market value today than when we purchased it.”
Onesti said his community wants the best – for the schools and for the homeowners.
“Everyone in the neighborhood, they want the school to do well,” Onesti said, “but we don’t want to see people losing their houses over it though, and that’s kind of where we’re headed.”
Nearby, the William Penn School District faces similar problems.
There, administrators have been forced to find whatever means possible to keep the schools functioning, even if that means have professionals from guidance counselors to a principal switch among a school or having the electric power completely turned off by a certain time in the summer to save some dollars.
William Penn Superintendent Jane Ann Harbert presented the challenges facing them.
“We are putting a lot of burden upon our taxpayers,” she said. “I live within the community. When I raise taxes, I’m also raising my taxes too. I know exactly what we are doing to our taxpayers but I also know what we are doing to our students when we don’t do this ... We were hoping the state would come through with more than it did.”
Her 5,100-student district saw a 2.2 percent tax increase this round to raise $1.1 million. Upper Darby, on the other hand, raised its taxes 2.5 percent on a $207 million budget that educates approximately 12,000 students. The Upper Darby School Board had been considering a 3.4 percent tax increase before $3.4 million of state funding was directed towards the district.
“To me, that should’ve never happened,” Harbert said of Upper Darby receiving the $3.5 million additional funds. “All money should’ve run through that fair funding formula.”
The Basic Education Funding Formula was passed in 2015 and evaluates districts based on wealth, number of children who live in poverty, the ability of the district to raise revenues and other factors in determining how funds should be distributed. Upon its passage, the formula was to only be applied to new monies being distributed to school districts.
After seeing the anguish of her school board trying to fill the gaps, Harbert said the road ahead will be difficult.
“I don’t know where we go from here,” she said. “I’m going to have to say to my tech department only replace what’s broken, nothing new,” she said. “I’m going to have to say to teachers, ... ‘We’re going to have to cover when someone’s out. We are not going to get a substitute.’”
One change made last year was that Aldan Elementary Principal Janet Braker was also assigned to be the principal at Colwyn Elementary.
“It’s certainly a challenge to be in two schools,” Braker said. “The difficulty in some ways is the stress on both buildings by not having a full-time administrator. I’ve had to adjust my style and rely more on other people. If I’m not here, somebody still has to do it. The responsibilities are the same whether there is one student or 500.”
She said they’re all doing the best they can.
“Everyone’s professional and tries to balance things out to serve students,” Braker said. “Out of necessity, we can be very creative but that doesn’t mean it’s not strained.”
She spoke about a student at one of the school’s whose parent was murdered.
“In a place with more resources, we would have had a swat team of counselors to support that child,” Braker said. “When you’re in a district that doesn’t have resources and you know other places can do very simple things to keep things rolling, you worry about the kids.”
The principal said she’d like to see more come from the state.
“To me, fair and equitable would be more funding coming directly from the state to even things out between districts,” Braker said.
At the same time, the state and federal mandates continue to increase and place more pressure on public schools.
“If we don’t dot every I, we’re in jeopardy of losing that money,” the William Penn superintendent said.
And, the financial struggle continues. “I’ve made all the cuts I know to make,” Harbert said. “My goal is to keep as far away from the children as I can. I’m at the point I don’t know where else to cut.”