A study released in August by the Independent Fiscal Office shows that taxpayers in four of the five counties in the Times News area pay significantly more in real estate taxes per capita than the other 63 counties in the state.

“Per capita” means “for each person.” In this case, for example, to compute the per capita, take the total annual amount of school real estate taxes paid and divide it by the county’s population.

Topping the list is Monroe County. Its per capita school district property tax revenue in 2020-21 was $2,089, even higher than the notoriously high cost living areas of southeastern Pennsylvania. Montgomery County checked in at number 2 with $2,035 per capita revenue; Chester County was third with $1,971, and Bucks, fourth, with $1,827.

Among our other local counties, Northampton was seventh with $1,636; Lehigh, 11th at $1,352, and Carbon, 12th, with $1,274.

Only Schuylkill County was much further down the list, coming in at 35th with a per capita school district property tax revenue of $683. The statewide average was $1,209.

Some Monroe taxpayers I talked to blame the recent property reassessment for the spike in school and other taxes - municipal and county - but assessment companies insist that the results of a reassessment should balance out with one-third remaining the same, one-third higher and one-third lower.

A Ross Township resident said she’s spoken to dozens of property owners in her municipality and adjoining Hamilton Township, but not a single one of them had decreased taxes after the reassessment. “That one-third stuff is a bunch of bull,” she said.

Statewide collections went from $13.1 billion in 2015-16 to $15.1 billion in 2020-21, an increase of about 15%. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, there were fewer tax increases in 2020-21 as school districts tried to relieve some of the financial pain for taxpayers.

This report mirrors one created last year by the IFO, which also showed these four local counties high in the tax-to-income ratio.

These latest numbers make our legislators’ and Gov. Tom Wolf’s decision to put money that was destined to go into a taxpayers’ relief fund into the state’s general fund all the more galling.

Almost to a person, the 253 members of the state’s General Assembly pay lip service to reducing the burden of taxes for property owners, but when they had a golden opportunity with the current budget, they punted.

Many legislators expressed surprise that a squirreled away provision in this newly adopted state budget contained a provision to move these casino revenues from a tax-relief account to the general fund.

State Sen. Lisa Boscola, D-Northampton and Lehigh, reacted swiftly and angrily when she learned what had occurred in the backroom deal and has introduced legislation that would reverse this travesty.

Boscola blasted her colleagues who engineered this change, saying that they reneged on their promise to taxpayers. There is a provision in the state’s casino gambling law that earmarks hundreds of millions of dollars into property tax relief if certain numbers from table game revenues are achieved. This threshold was reached this past year, so taxpayers could have looked forward to some badly needed real estate tax relief.

This provision was quietly taken out of the budget process, and instead of going into the fund for taxpayer relief, the money is going into the state’s general fund.

It took the state nearly a dozen years to reach this threshold - $750 million in the fund. The threshold applies only to revenues from table games at the state’s 14 casinos. If budget negotiators would have left things alone, about $130 million would have flowed automatically from 2021-22 into this tax-relief fund, with projections for $134 million for 2022-23 and $131 million for 2023-24. The move didn’t get any attention until after the budget passed and the secret negotiations became public.

The governor shares part of the blame, because he was on board with this, too, saying the historic increase in school funding in the current budget “will more than make up for the difference.”

By Bruce Frassinelli | tneditor@tnonline.com

The foregoing opinions do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editorial Board or Times News LLC.