Philadelphia School District tax revenues have spiked in the last five years, City Controller Alan Butkovitz reported Tuesday.
A monthly economic report released by Butkovitz showed that fiscal 2016 taxes toward the school district were at $1.1 billion, a 46% increase from 2011. Butkovitz noted that implementation of city's the cigarette tax and 1% percent sales tax extension in 2014 played a large role in the boost combining for an extra $170 million of revenue in 2016.
Local tax revenues currently provide the Philadelphia School District with 42% of its annual operating revenues, according to Butkovitz. Remaining operating revenues largely derive from state funding (53%), Butkovitz said. The Pennsylvania General Assembly and Philadelphia City Council control the district's taxing authority.
Philadelphia School District bonds were downgraded five notches last December to Ba2 as a result of a new Moody's Investors Service rating approach to the Pennsylvania State Aid Intercept Program. A May audit released by Pennsylvania Auditor General Eugene DePasquale showed that the district had a structural deficit of more than half a billion from 2010 to 2014 due largely to state-mandated support for a rising charter school population.
