FIGURE: On average, annual school taxes have increased about $1,000 per household in Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery Counties in the last decade. The figures aren’t adjusted for inflation; nationwide, prices have increased about 19 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The Bryn Athyn and Chester-Upland school districts were not included.
Pennsylvania’s modest $100 million school-funding increase in the 2018-19 budget was hardly sufficient to stave off another round of school-tax increases that are now greeting taxpayers from Chester County horse country to the river towns along the Delaware and the Route 422 corridor.
School officials in the counties blame a perennial matrix of issues, including pensions, contractual and special-education costs, and assorted state and federal mandates for the fact that more than 50 school districts have levied higher tax rates by an average of $100 effective July 1 — and an average of $100 annually for the last 10 years.
In the last decade, school property taxes in the 60-plus districts in Bucks, Chester, Delaware, and Montgomery Counties have jumped 25 percent — in some cases better than 40 percent — outpacing inflation at a time when enrollments have been stagnant.
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