The Scranton School Board approved a $243.1 million district budget for 2026 that does not include a property tax hike, making next year the third in a row without an increase.

After reorganizing earlier this month, the board met Monday and approved a slate of budget-related resolutions in a series of unanimous votes. In addition to avoiding a property tax hike in 2026, Pat Laffey, assistant to the superintendent for finance and operations, said the district also will maintain current rates next year for the earned income, local services, realty transfer and payroll preparation taxes it levies.

The adopted budget reflects some changes from a proposed $241.4 million version the board approved in mid-November, setting up Monday’s final budget vote. The final version includes about $6.5 million in budgetary reserves and sets a reassessment-adjusted property tax millage rate of 9.5585 mills for 2026, down considerably from the district’s 2025 tax rate of 147.85 mills. A mill is a $1 tax on every $1,000 of assessed value.

The precipitous drop is the product of Lackawanna County’s first countywide property reassessment since 1968, with reassessment designed to bring assessed property values in line with market values in the interest of tax fairness. Because reassessment must be revenue neutral for the district and other taxing bodies, tax rates will fall next year when new, higher assessments take effect to ensure those entities collect essentially the same amount of property tax revenue after reassessment as they did before.

School districts, counties and municipalities apply their millage rates to a property’s assessed value to generate a tax bill. The reassessment means property owners may see their 2026 tax bills fluctuate compared to 2025 despite the district not raising taxes.

For example, someone whose property was assessed at $9,000 before reassessment and $140,000 after would have owed $1,330.65 in Scranton School District taxes this year, under the 147.85-mill rate, and will owe $1,338.19 in district taxes next year, under the reassessment-adjusted rate of 9.5585 mills.

A general rule of thumb is that about a third of tax bills increase after reassessment, a third decrease and a third remain more or less the same.

The district, which operates on a calendar year budget as opposed to a traditional July-to-June school district fiscal year, last raised property taxes in 2023, by 3.4%. The proposed 2024 budget originally included a modest 1.25% increase the board ultimately voted to forgo in December 2023, leaving its property tax rate unchanged in 2024. The district’s 2025 budget also didn’t raise taxes.

Building purchase

Also Monday, the board voted to purchase a building at 1509 Maple St., Scranton, from the nonprofit Friendship House in a $2.5 million transaction that includes several parcels.

The nonprofit will lease back approximately 15% of the building and pay the district $15,596 in monthly rent, with utilities included in the rent, per a commercial lease agreement between the parties.

The board vote to approve the sales agreement and accompanying lease was 7-2, with Directors Carol Cleary and Catherine Fox opposed.

Cleary, one of the winners of the November election, just began her four-year term earlier this month.

“Purchasing a property is typically discussed in executive sessions,” she said Tuesday. “Having not been privy to those discussions, I didn’t feel I was able to do my due diligence in making a $2.5 million decision.”

Also reached Tuesday, Fox said she doesn’t feel she was presented with a comprehensive plan to justify the purchase and worries it could create financial pressure for the district in the future.

The district plans to use the building to expand its Monticello School special education programming, Laffey said in a text message.

“This would properly support the needs of our K-3 special education identified population,” he said.