Radnor school board approves 2.6 percent tax increase
RADNOR » Taxpayers in Radnor Township will have to dig a little deeper after last week’s approval of a tax hike for the upcoming school year.
Tuesday night, the school board approved a 2.6 percent increase in the property tax as part of the 20202021 budget. The 2.6 percent increase is the highest allowed under the state’s Act 1 index. The Act 1 index limits the percentage of a tax hike a school district could include in its budget.
The allowed percentage changes each year and varies by school district.
In her budget presentation, Michelle Diekow, business administrator for the district, said they applied for and received approval for $150,957 in exceptions from the state as part of the budget. In the end, the administration decided against using them in their increase calculations. Budget exceptions represent money school districts are allowed to factor out of their budget increases when they calculate the Act 1 limitations.
Under the approved budget, the 2.6 percent increase represents a millage rate that increases by .6478 mills to 25.5659 mills for every
$1,000 of a property’s assessed value.
The increase in taxes is needed to cover a shortfall in the projected spending. The budget calls for expenditures of $102.7 million on projected revenues of
$101.39 million.
For a homeowner with an assessed value of $274,000, there will be an increase of
$177. A property with an assessed value of $472,000 will have an increase of
$306. A $700,000 property would have a tax bill of $453.
At one point, board member Lydia Solomon indicated that she was pleased that the budget kept all the district’s programs. A short time later, she went on to explain that she was voting against approval of the budget due to concerns over the COVID-19 economic shutdown.
“As a district, we should be anticipating hard times economically ahead, and we should be tightening our belt more as a district,” Solomon said.
The final approval came with seven members voting to approve the budget and two members, Solomon and Jeff Jubelirer, voting against it.