BENSALEM TOWNSHIP, PA — The Bensalem Township School Board has walked a tightrope throughout the past year, often showing how party lines would break over numerous issues.

The passing of the 2025-2026 school budget was a little bit different, with some board members breaking the ranks in casting their votes.

The school board approved a 2.4 percent tax hike in its final $188.36 million school budget at a June 30 special meeting, the final date for school districts in the state to approve their budgets. The state’s Act 1 Index this year was 4 percent.

Residents will pay $98 more in taxes on the average home assessment. Residents who applied for and received the homestead allocation would pay $54, school officials said.

While the budget’s approval went right down to the wire, it was met with disdain by some of the board’s Democratic members.

“I voted for no tax increase this year. I had to take a stand against the irresponsible budgeting of the majority. Every year they vote to authorize any and all spending requested — from a robot to paint the football field to a big raise for the superintendent, both of which I voted against — while refusing to increase income,” School Director Stephanie Gonzalez Ferrandez told Patch.

Ferrandez, who is running for mayor in November, said that since at least 2017, the district has experienced a “cycle of overspending, depleting savings, and then requiring large tax increases or eliminating staff.”

Patch also reached out to School Directors Deborah King and Rebecca Mirra for comment.

“Mr. Cohen said, ‘cut nothing.’ But we all know that Harrisburg is not going to bail us out,” Ferrandez said. “The Bensalem Township School Board itself needs stable fiscal management, and the majority needs to take responsibility.”

Cohen, a Republican, told Patch on Wednesday that he’s against the Act 1 index.

“I voted no for the tax increase,” Cohen said. With Act 1, the state wants school boards to increase taxes every year. But then taxes would double for residents by 10 years.”

The Republicans hold a 5-4 majority on the school board.

School Director Deborah King, a Democrat, said she was pleased that the district reached a bipartisan decision on this budget.

“Our district is facing urgent needs: we require more teachers, psychologists, teacher assistants, support staff, and updated curriculum resources, including the new math program, which I fully supported. These investments are necessary to ensure a high-quality education for every student,” King said.

“While I was glad we reached a bipartisan decision on this matter, it’s clear that we must do better moving forward. Our schools need sustainable solutions, not temporary fixes. The ‘scotch tape’ approach to addressing long-standing issues never worked, and it’s forcing us to draw from our fund balance in ways that are unsustainable,” King said. “Our children deserve more than short-term solutions — we need lasting change.”

School Director Karen Winters, a Democrat, said the school budget was presented as about $6.5 million higher than the past school year’s budget.

“These increases were mainly due to special education costs and small cost-of-living increases for our staff. We were also asked by the business manager and superintendent to be fiscally responsible and make expenses predictable for our taxpayers,” Winters said. “That means we should not be volatile; raising taxes 0 percent one year would necessitate a large increase the next year. To avoid volatility for our community, I supported the stable budget revenue that we passed. This budget allows for a new elementary math curriculum as well as seven new teachers across the district. I fully support these expenditures as needed to better the educational experiences of our students.”