BUTLER TWP - School board members, superintendents and other school officials found themselves on the opposite end of the discussion Wednesday morning at an Act 72 forum at Butler County Community College.

The forum, hosted by the college in conjunction with the Butler County Chamber of Commerce, was designed to provide information to businesses about the property tax relief plan.

Superintendents from the Mars, Moniteau and Butler school districts attended, as well as several school board members.

Act 72 gives public school districts the option to accept state gambling revenue in exchange for property tax reduction for homeowners. However, districts that opt in must increase the earned income tax by 0.1 percentage point and property tax rate hikes beyond the rate of inflation would be subjected to a voter referendum.

David Sallack, managing director for Public Financial Management, told the school officials, "In my opinion, this is one of the most difficult and complex decisions I've seen school boards have to make."

Ron Cowell, president of the Education and Policy Leadership Center, said, "This is probably the most important issue facing public school districts today. I suspect at this moment that school board members know more about Act 71 and 72 than the legislators who voted for and enacted it."

The nonprofit policy leadership center

conducts policy and leadership programs in conjunction with local, state and national organizations.

Cowell said the act was made to sound more promising than it actually is, but Gov. Ed Rendell is still putting a positive spin on it by saying any school district that doesn't participate must be nuts. Rendell made that comment last week in response to the news that only four school districts had so far chosen to participate in the act.

"We've got a governor now who can put a positive economic spin on anything," Cowell said.

Cowell said Pennsylvania has one of the worst state funding systems in the nation, with Pennsylvania contributing only 34 percent of the funding needed for public education, while other states provide closer to 50 percent.

"Generally speaking, we have a very poor system," he said. "And this (act) is not going to be the solution to that problem."

Cowell said even with Act 72, Pennsylvania is relying more heavily on property taxes to fund public education than any other state.

"Poor districts are still going to be poor," he said. "This act does nothing to remedy this horrible (funding) inequity."

Moniteau School Board member Bill Smith said Act 72 is a "slippery slope."

"And the problem I have is if we go down this slippery slope ... we have no idea how much people are going to gamble or what we're going to get," Smith said.

Bill Pettigrew, the Mars superintendent, asked if it is true that before any of the other 500 school districts got a share of the money, that the Philadelphia School District would get its share first.

Both Cowell and Sallack said that is not specifically spelled out in the act and it is their understanding that all schools that opt into the act would receive equal funding when money was available.

Moniteau Superintendent Michael Panza asked if the slots gambling could have a negative effect on the Pennsylvania Lottery, which benefits older residents.

Cowell said that is a real possibility, but it is too early to tell if it will be negatively affected.

SLICING UP THE PIE

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Under Act 72 - the property taxpayer relief act - $1 billion in slots revenue must be generated before any taxpayer relief will be realized. But once that amount is reached, not all of the revenue will go toward taxpayer relief. Here is where the money will go when the $1 billion mark is reached:

DESTINATION PERCENTAGE

Property tax relief 34%

Casino operations 48%

Economic development 5%

Host county 2%

Horse racing development fund 9%

Host municipality 2%

SOURCE: The Education Policy and Leadership Center