Five school districts in Lancaster County have received permission from the state to raise taxes higher than their original inflation-governed limit under Act 1, the New Era reports today. The districts, and their original limits, are Columbia, 6.3 percent; Eastern Lancaster County, 4.4 percent; Lancaster, 5.1 percent; Hempfield, 6.3 percent; and Solanco, 5.4 percent.

Officials in those districts do not yet know what tax rate they will propose for next year, but obtaining the permission allows them to exceed the caps if they feel they need to. The remaining 11 public school districts here did not ask for the exceptions. The five that sought permission this year mark a sharp contrast to last year, when 12 of the 16 school districts in the county asked for the exceptions, according to newspaper records.

Act 1, signed into law June 2006 by Gov. Ed Rendell, was a cap on property tax increases by Pennsylvania school districts. The provision was intended to limit tax hikes to the level of inflation (wink, wink, nod, nod).

Permission to go higher than a school district’s assigned index was granted to 102 of Pennsylvania’s 501 school districts this year, compared to 210 districts last year, according to figures released by the department. The 50-percent decline may be linked partly to school boards having greater sensitivity to taxpayers’ pocketbooks amid a weakening national economy, department spokesman Michael Race said.

Says Tony Phyrillas, over at The Mercury in Pottstown: “Look on the bright side. Last year, 210 school districts applied for the exemptions and the state granted all 210 requests. This year, the bureaucrats in the Department of Education are getting tough. They rejected 4 of the 106 applications. As if you needed another reason to vote out incumbent Pennsylvania lawmakers, most of them supported Act 1 in 2006. It was an obvious ploy to fool voters into thinking the Legislature had addressed property taxes. Has anyone’s school taxes gone down in the past two years?”