LOWER MERION — Lower Merion and Narberth property owners will be seeing a 4% property tax increase for the upcoming school year.
This week, the Lower Merion Board of School Directors approved the 4% tax increase as part of its approval of the 2025-2026 school year budget.
Victor Orlando, business manager for the Lower Merion School District, outlined the 2025-2026 budget.
The millage rate is increasing from 33.9110 in 2024-2025 to 35.2674 in the 2025-2026 budget. The increase in mills is 1.3564 or 4%.
For a property with a median household assessment of $250,680, the 2024-2025 tax bill came to $8,501. For the 2025-2026 school year, the new tax bill is $8,841, representing a $340 increase from the previous year.
According to a chart displayed by Orlando, 80% of the revenue the school district receives comes from local tax sources. The local tax sources mainly come from property taxes.
Approximately 15% of the revenue the district receives comes by way of taxpayers throughout Pennsylvania through the state government.
Wealthy school district, such as Lower Merion, tend to receive much less money from the federal government than poorer school districts. Due to its wealth, Lower Merion only gets about one-half of one percent of its total revenue from the federal government.
The district is also using its fund balance to cover 1% of its upcoming budget, with an additional 3.7% to be covered by other financing sources.
Local tax revenues for the 2025-2026 school year budget total $264.29 million, an increase from $257.30 million in the 2024-2025 budget.
The use of the district’s fund balance for the upcoming budget comes to $3.5 million, up from $2.9 million in the current year’s budget.
The total state revenue for the upcoming budget is $52.97 million, up from just over $50.49 million.
The district also rakes in $1.97 million from taxpayers across the country by way of the federal government. The $1.97 million is up from $1.87 million it got as part of the 2024-2025 budget.
The other financial sources category included the sale of the district’s Oakwell property, which is not expected to be finalized until next spring and will bring in just over $12.9 million.
Orlando said some of the potential uses of the Oakwell money include phase 2 of the Bala Cynwyd Middle School Roof project, the school bus replacement program, the district administration building roof projects, and the playground renovation project.
“Please note, the $12.9 million is not going to cover all four of these,” Orlando said. “It’s going to be either some or a portion of the four items listed here.”
The total revenue from all sources for the Lower Merion 2025-2026 budget amounts to over $352.59 million, up from $329.276 million in the 2024-2025 budget.
The state property tax reduction allocation, divided among all approved homestead properties, amounts to over $6.2 million, up from more than $5.4 million in the 2024-2025 school year.
With 14,903 approved homestead properties in Lower Merion, each will receive an increase in their tax reduction of $49. That will mean each approved property will be $416 off their total tax bill.
Among the district’s anticipated expenses for the upcoming year are $157.947 million for salaries, $100.5 million for benefits, $10.9 million for professional services, $14 million for supplies, and $18 million for other purchased services.
The district’s total anticipated expenditures for the 2025-2026 budget are $352.596 million, up from $329.276 million in the 2024-2025 budget.