GREEN TREE (KDKA) — It’s official – slots gaming money is going to be refunded to taxpayers to reduce school property taxes.

The exact amount depends on your school district and a complicated formula. But don’t look for a check in the mail from your school district.

It’s really a bit convoluted. Instead of the state sending you a gaming rebate check for a few hundred dollars, they send all that money to your school district.

The school district is supposed to reduce the assessed value of your house equal to the same dollar amount that you would have gotten if the state had sent you the check in the first place.

David Montz collects school taxes for Keystone Oaks in Green Tree and understands why people don’t think they’re getting any of the promised tax reduction.

“They don’t see a dollar amount. They see a reduction in their assessed value and most individuals don’t relate that to a dollar amount of savings,” he explained.

For example, a house assessed at $110, 500, the assessment is cut $6,600 to give the taxpayer a gaming refund of $145.

But Montz says sometimes school districts raise taxes to recapture that money.

“I was notified to give a homestead – the exemption for the homestead as well as to increase the millage rate,” he said.

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