What are property taxes?

Property tax is an annual tax on real estate. The tax is based on two components – the assessed value of improvement (or building) and the assessed value of the land.  Property tax is  paid by anyone who owns a home or commercial property.

How is property tax used?

The tax is mainly used by local municipalities and most or all of the money you pay stays inside your community.  Road construction, maintenance and local government staff salaries are paid with your property tax dollars.  They also support emergency services like police and firefighters.  Property tax is also used to fund public education, including facilities, teacher salaries, supplies and transportation for students.

For more information about different types of taxes, click here:  https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/faqs/Taxes/Pages/state-local.aspx

How are public schools funded?

School districts typically get about 46% of their revenue from the state and about 45% from local sources.  The remaining 9% comes from federal sources.

For more detailed information, follow this link: https://ballotpedia.org/Public_education_in_Pennsylvania

What is the millage rate?

“Millage” is based on a Latin word that means “thousandth.” So 1 mill is equivalent to 1/1000th. Applied to taxes, that means 1 mill is equivalent to $1 in taxes per $1,000 in assessed value.

The 2016-17 tax millage rate for Avon Grove school district is 29.04.   That means for an assessed house value of $100,000 house you would pay $2904 in property taxes.

There is more information on the Avon Grove School District website about taxes and millage rate: https://www.avongrove.org/district/administration/business-manager/taxes/tax-faq