{"id":58475,"date":"2025-12-11T23:10:06","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T23:10:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/58475\/"},"modified":"2025-12-11T23:10:06","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T23:10:06","slug":"9-5-percent-tax-increase-looms-in-lower-merion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/58475\/","title":{"rendered":"9.5 Percent Tax Increase Looms In Lower Merion"},"content":{"rendered":"

LOWER MERION TOWNSHIP, PA \u2014 As Lower Merion Township officials work to establish the 2026 budget, they are floating a real estate tax increase.<\/p>\n

The proposed 2026 budget accounts for $79.3 million in revenues, and $83.8 million in expenditures. That leaves a $4.6 million gap, which will be covered by the $22.5 general fund, leaving that figure at $17.8 million.<\/p>\n

The budget proposes a 9.5 percent real estate tax increase from 4.462 mills to 4.886 mills, and other increases, to offset that gap.<\/p>\n

According to documents, a single family detached home assessed at the median value of $287,600 would pay an additional $122 in township real estate taxes in 2026 compared to 2025, bringing the total tax bill to $1,405.<\/p>\n

That tax increase would generate $3.2 million when compared to 2025’s tax revenue, and reduces the gap from $7.8 million to $4.6 million.<\/p>\n

Additionally, the township is looking to increase parking meter rates from 50 cents per hour to $1 per hour, and to $1.50 per hour in some locations.<\/p>\n

Officials say without these increases, the budget deficit would increase to about $8.5 million.<\/p>\n

See the full 2026 budget proposal presentation online here.<\/a><\/p>\n

The board of commissioners will vote to adopt the budget at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday in the second floor boardroom of the Lower Merion Township Administration Building, 75 E. Lancaster Ave. in Ardmore.<\/p>\n

In person and virtual attendance is permitted at the meeting. Those who want to participate virtually via Zoom should contact Lower Merion Township Secretary Jody Kelley at 610-645-6145 or at publiccomment@lowermerion.org before noon on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The meeting will also be viewable on LMTV, Comcast Cable Channel 7, Verizon FiOS Channel 37, and online here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOWER MERION TOWNSHIP, PA \u2014 As Lower Merion Township officials work to establish the 2026 budget, they are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58476,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[183,185,184,186],"class_list":["post-58475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-lower-merion","tag-lower-merion","tag-lower-merion-headlines","tag-lower-merion-news","tag-lower-merion-township"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58475","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=58475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58475\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}