For these cases, the Pennsylvania Department of Education sets an annual tuition rate for each school district. It is the amount the public school district pays to a charter school for each resident student that attends the charter and it is the amount a nonresident student's parents must pay to attend the district's schools. The 2012 tuition rates are Elementary School - $8,033.05, High School - $9,058.70. KOZ tax free zone In 2013, a local business group - Milton Area industrial Development Association, applied to the school board for a KOZ designation which would have exempted its 15.8 acre property from paying school property taxes for 10 years. The board rejected the application for a second 10-year KOZ tax exemption. Milton Area School District is funded by a combination of: a local earned income tax 1.3%, a property taxes, a real estate transfer tax - 0.5%, per capita taxes of $5 (Section 679) and $10 (Act 511). substantial funding from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the federal government. Grants can provide an opportunity to supplement school funding without raising local taxes. Interest earnings on accounts also provide nontax income to the district. In the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, pension income and Social Security income are exempted from both state personal income tax and local earned income tax, regardless of the individual's level of wealth. The average Pennsylvania public school teacher's pension in 2011 exceeds $60,000 a year plus they receive federal Social Security benefits: both are free of Pennsylvania state income tax and local income tax which funds local public schools. According to a report from Representative Todd Stephens office, Milton Area School District receives 51.4% of its annual revenue from the state. This exceeds some education advocates goal of the state providing 50% of district funding. In December 2014, the Pennsylvania Education Funding Reform Commission conducted a hearing. The commission developed a new basic education funding formula which sets a new way to distribute state basic education dollars. It abolished the practice of "hold harmless" funding, which gave districts at least the same as they got the previous school year regardless of declining enrollment. The plan became law in June 2016 (House Bill 1552). For the 2017-18 school year, Milton Area School District received an increase to $9,233,310 in Basic Education Funding from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania again increased its public education spending to a record high of $5.995 billion. It was a $100 million increase, 1.7% increase over the 2016-17 state education appropriation.