HARRISBURG — More than 2.5 million Pennsylvania homeowners will share nearly $612 million in property and wage tax reductions thanks to slot-machine gambling.

The state Department of Education today released estimates of next year’s reductions for most of the 500 local school districts under the homestead and farmstead exclusion program.

Under the program, the assessed value of the participating homesteads in each district is reduced by an equal amount, cutting the tax.

Homeowners have until March 1 to qualify for reductions in the following year.