PA: Possible 6% tax increase; Central Bucks District sees $8M increase in SPED costs

June 5, 2025, Phillyburbs.com: Central Bucks to decide Thursday on nearly 6% tax hike. What it could cost taxpayers 

https://www.phillyburbs.com/story/news/local/2025/06/05/central-bucks-county-school-district-tax-hike-budget-spending-proposal-bucks-county-pa-education/84028485007/#

The Central Bucks School District board of directors will decide Thursday on a final budget that would raise taxes by nearly 6%.

The proposed tax hike is the highest in over a decade, exceeding last year's high of 5.3%. A Central Bucks homeowner with a property valued at an average fair market value for the district of $634,920.63 would see their tax bill, which is currently at $5,862, increase by $329 under the proposal.

Central Bucks received special approval from Pennsylvania to raise taxes above the 4% limit to fund rising special education costs, according  to a district budget presentation. The hike will also fund increases in existing contractual obligations to employees, and rising supply costs.

The school district received approval to raise taxes above 4% based on its special education spending increase from the 2022–2023 school year to the 2023–2024 year, according to the presentation. Instruction costs for students with disabilities grew 14% in a year, a nearly $8 million increase. Special education services also increased; the biggest services spending increase — both in raw dollars and by growth rate — was legal services, which more than doubled to $549,349.11 in the 2023–2024 school year.

The proposed tax hike is higher than the estimated maximum that Central Bucks officials had proposed earlier this year. In January, then-COO Tara Houser projected an increase of up to 5.5%.

Central Bucks also got state approval for a higher tax hike than they expected. While the district's current proposal is a 5.95% hike, the Department of Education approved an increase of up to 6.43%.

The school board has emphasized it views the repeated tax hikes in recent years — a total of $568 for the average homeowner in four years — as playing catch up for the prior six years, when taxes were not raised at all. The district raised taxes last year by the maximum allowed without seeking an exception at 5.3%, in part to fund building renovations and equipment replacements that Central Bucks said were long overdue.

Central Bucks continues to benefit from high property values: the district would retain one of the lowest millage rates in Bucks County under the proposal, behind New Hope-Solebury and Palisades.

But even with the proposed 5.95% increase, the school district would increase its estimated deficit to more than $11 million, according to the district's presentation. The new budget would also shrink the district's reserve fund to about $8 million — just 1.9% of total expenditures, down from about 3.8% this year.

The school board's finance committee will decide on the budget at its meeting on Thursday at 7 p.m. The entire school board would then vote on a final budget on June 18.