EMMAUS, Pa. \u2013 The East Penn School District Board of Directors on Monday night adopted the 2026-27 final budget which contains a tax increase on property owners.<\/p>\n
The $213.4 million spending plan implements a 3.9% tax increase. The district’s Act 1 Index is 4.1%. A home with a $216,367 assessed value would see a $184 annual tax increase, according to Business Administrator Robert Saul.<\/p>\n
The district projects $203.2 million in revenue with the majority \u2014 $150.9 million \u2014 coming from local sources, $50.8 million from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and $1.5 million from the federal government.<\/p>\n
EPSD’s spending is outpacing its revenues, clocking in at $213.4 million. The district is spending most of its budget \u2014 about $144.3 million \u2014 on salaries and benefits, which is typical for a school district. EPSD has a total beginning fund balance \u2014 comprised of committed, assigned and unassigned funds \u2014 and budgetary reserve of $26 million. About $13 million is unassigned.<\/p>\n
District financial officials warned residents of a financially challenging future based on their projections that, absent further adjustments, expenditure growth is expected to exceed revenue growth on a recurring basis. The district said the “structural imbalance” is not the result of a single factor, but rather, “the cumulative impact of several key cost drivers.”<\/p>\n
The cost drivers are higher salaries and wages, health care, transportation, charter school tuition, and facility and infrastructure needs.<\/p>\n
Salary and benefit costs alone are expected to increase from $144.4 million in 2026-27 to $176.9 million by 2030-31. This amounts to a $32.5 million increase. Group insurance costs are also projected to jettison by 21% in the 2026-27 time period alone. By comparison, over the same period, total revenue is projected to grow approximately $37 million \u2014 an increase that must also fund instructional programs, operational costs, capital reserve contributions and other EPSD needs.<\/p>\n
At the same time, the district’s primary revenue source of real estate taxes is constrained by statutory limits and local considerations. This results in revenue growth that does not fully keep pace with the district’s spending habits.<\/p>\n
The budget continues a district trend. The district’s 2025-26 spending plan contained a 4% tax increase. The 2024-25 budget included a 4.12% tax increase \u2014 the largest hike in more than 10 years at the time. The 2023-24 budget contained a 2.51% tax hike. East Penn School District has raised taxes 10 times in the last 11 years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EMMAUS, Pa. \u2013 The East Penn School District Board of Directors on Monday night adopted the 2026-27 final…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":134174,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120,1416,18524,17057,16988],"class_list":["post-214274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news","tag-east-penn-school-district","tag-property-tax","tag-school-board","tag-tax-increase"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214274\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}