Wilkinsburg taxpayers get a break

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

While other school districts are raising taxes or tapping into reserves to help pay the bills next year, Wilkinsburg is doing what many residents have dreamed about for years.

The school board this month passeda $30 million budget that reduces the property tax rate by 3.13 mills, which, according to district leaders, means it no longer has the highestrateinAlleghenyCounty.

“I feel more hopeful than I ever have about the whole Wilkinsburg Borough, not just the school district,” said school board member Ed Donovan.

Property owners in Wilkinsburg will now pay school taxes of 29.5 mills. While the state has yet to compile the list of each district’s millage rates for 201819 — final budgets were due June 30 — it appears based on last year’s rates that Wilkinsburg no longer takes the top spot for highest school taxes in Allegheny County. The new rate of 29.5 mills is slightly less than the rate that taxpayers in the Brentwood School District