Many Lackawanna County school districts raised taxes even as millage rates fell in taxpayers\u2019 first school property tax bills since reassessment.<\/p>\n
Millage rates for the 2026-27 school year are significantly lower than last year, dropping from between 100 and 200 mills for the 2025-26 school year to between 10 and 12 mills. The county, municipalities and school districts were required to adjust their tax rates so the total amount of real estate taxes each collects is the same as before reassessment.<\/p>\n
But school districts also have the option to raise taxes up to a maximum percentage that varies based on a state formula. Many school districts raised taxes for the 2026-27 school year, often citing increased costs for facilities, health care, special education and charter school tuition.<\/p>\n
For example, Dunmore\u2019s tax rate dropped from 162.4937 mills to 10.051 mills, Mid Valley went from 147.3485 mills to 10.1288 mills and Abington Heights went from 148.09 mills to 9.9129 mills. Both Abington Heights and Dunmore passed budgets that raise taxes for 2026-27. Mid Valley\u2019s budget did not include a tax increase.<\/p>\n
A mill is a $1 tax on every $1,000 of a property\u2019s assessed value.<\/p>\n
Lakeland Superintendent Marc Wyandt said rising costs have prompted officials to eliminate positions for the past four years. This year, they didn\u2019t fill two teaching positions at the high school and two administrative positions \u2014 the assistant high school principal and the district\u2019s director of technology. The latter position was outsourced to the Northeastern Educational Intermediate Unit.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been incredibly challenging and we\u2019re hopeful that the increased funding and our ongoing efforts to control costs will eventually get us to a point where we\u2019re working with the balanced budget and aren\u2019t forced to go to our local taxpayers with a tax increase,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Wyandt added the cost to repair aging district facilities outpaces the amount of funding Lakeland received from the state.<\/p>\n
Even with a tax increase, Dunmore Business Manager Antoinette Lopatka said officials had to dip into the fund balance to ensure the district\u2019s budget was balanced.<\/p>\n
Old Forge Superintendent Christopher Gatto said he appreciates the additional state funding that came from a state Supreme Court decision on fair funding, but the phased implementation of that funding is not keeping pace with the rapidly increasing costs school districts face.<\/p>\n
\u201cDespite these additional state investments, Old Forge School District remains underfunded by approximately $4 million under Pennsylvania\u2019s school funding adequacy formula,\u201d he said. \u201cAs a result, local taxpayers continue to shoulder a greater share of the financial responsibility than they should.\u201d<\/p>\n
Debt service from an addition under construction at Abington Heights Middle School, along with rising medical insurance and special education costs, transportation costs, charter school tuition and other inflationary costs, contributed to the tax increase for residents of the Abington Heights School District, Superintendent Christopher Shaffer said.<\/p>\n
The 70,000-square-foot addition, expected to be completed by fall 2027, will include a new administrative suite, classrooms and gymnasium.\n<\/p>\n
The Scranton School District \u2014 the only district in the county to operate on a calendar-year budget as opposed to a traditional July-to-June school district fiscal year \u2014 adopted a 2026 budget in December with a reassessment-adjusted tax rate of 9.5585 mills, compared to 147.85 mills in 2025. There was no tax increase.<\/p>\n
Regional school district budgets<\/p>\n
Budget amounts, millage rates and tax increases (if any) for the 2026-27 school year are as follows:<\/p>\n
Abington Heights: $66 million; 9.9129 mills; 4.1% tax increase.\n<\/p>\n
Carbondale Area: $36 million; 7.8733 mills; no tax increase.\n<\/p>\n
Dunmore: $29 million; 10.051 mills; 5.2% tax increase.\n<\/p>\n
Forest City Regional: $20 million; 8.09 mills for Vandling residents, 54.24 mills for Susquehanna County and 13.66 mills for Wayne County; 4.7% tax increase.\n<\/p>\n
Lackawanna Trail: $26 million; 10.92 mills for Lackawanna County, 90.56 mills for Wyoming County; 1.46% tax increase for Lackawanna County residents, while taxes decreased 2.44% for Wyoming County residents.\n<\/p>\n
Lakeland: $33 million; 8.7996 mills; 4.6% tax increase.\n<\/p>\n
Mid Valley: $41 million; 10.1288 mills; no tax increase.\n<\/p>\n
North Pocono: $73 million; 12.4201 mills for Lackawanna County residents and 14.9670 mills for residents of Lehigh Twp., Wayne County; 5% tax increase for Lackawanna County residents and 3.83% increase for Lehigh Twp. residents.\n<\/p>\n
Old Forge: $22 million; 9.80 mills; 4.3% tax increase.\n<\/p>\n
Riverside: $34 million; 9.3441 mills; no tax increase.\n<\/p>\n
Valley View: $47 million; 10.75 mills; no tax increase.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Many Lackawanna County school districts raised taxes even as millage rates fell in taxpayers\u2019 first school property tax…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":253179,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[227,201,182,139,28,178,180,179,181],"class_list":["post-253178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-education","tag-lackawanna-county","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-top-stories-stt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253178","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=253178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253178\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}