ALLENTOWN, Pa. – The Allentown School District Board of Directors will not raise taxes beyond the highest amount allowed by the state for the 2027-28 school year, which is 5.6%.
The Pennsylvania Department of Education informed the district that it would not qualify for baseline criteria to raise taxes above its assigned adjusted rate index, known as the Act 1 Index.
Should a school district seek to raise taxes above the Act 1 Index, the PDE must grant special exceptions or a district needs voter referendum approval.
If a school district cannot or does not pursue either option, they must formally “opt out,” which is what the Allentown school board voted to do during its Thursday night meeting.
That action notifies the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania that ASD will accept the Act 1 Index amount of 5.6%. This does not mean the district will raise taxes by that percentage, however; it only accepts that percentage as the maximum allowed, should the district determine it needs to raise taxes during its budget process.
For the 2026-27 school year, ASD raised taxes by 2.9% when the state’s Act 1 index was 5.4%. The current tax rate is 23.3 mills.
During the school board’s finance committee meeting earlier in the evening, discussions included next year’s spending plan, which highlighted the timeline the district will utilize to approve the budget. This includes a budget forum scheduled for April 15 at a site to be determined, approval of a preliminary budget the following month, and final budget adoption in June.
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