Before casino floors across Pennsylvania were filled with the clatter of slot machines and the flashing lights of jackpots, supporters of legalized gambling promised the expected revenue would be a sure bet to reduce property taxes.
Today, state gaming officials and creators of Act 1, known as the Taxpayer Relief Act of 2006, say that wager has paid off. School districts — the primary beneficiaries of property taxes in the state — received more than $6.2 billion from casino revenue in the last decade to offer relief for homeowners.
Still, a TribLive investigation found that the formula used to distribute that gambling revenue relies on economic data that is more than two decades old. And although the money allocated for property tax relief is expected to grow to more than $1 billion this year, it will be shared by just more than half of the state’s eligible home and farm owners.
