State College residents may see tax increase after school board approval of proposed budget

State College residents could see a substantial real estate tax increase this year after the State College Area School Board of Directors unanimously approved the proposed 2023-2024 budget on Monday night.

The proposed budget includes a 4.1% tax increase. It would make the average residential property tax $3,430, a $141 increase for the average resident from the 2022-2023 school year. Commercial and industrial properties would see a $1105 increase and agricultural properties would see a $206 increase. The majority of the properties within the district are residential, with only 17% of properties being commercial or agricultural.

The district raised taxes last year by 3.4% after declining to raise the tax rate for the 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 school years affected by the pandemic. The proposed 4.1% increase is the maximum amount the district can raise taxes under the Act 1 index without seeking an exception from the Pennsylvania Department of Education.

“The 4.1% that we’re suggesting for this year is really trying to get us back to where we would have been, it doesn’t quite get us there but close, if we had persisted with a 2% increase per year which has been our historical average,” board member Deborah Anderson said.

The increase will help pay for two new mental health clinicians, a multicultural success initiative and a bilingual educator position. The services, totaling $398,790, were previously funded by grants. The increase will also be used to support a girl’s wrestling program, a one-time cost for a new reading curriculum, cyber security and rising costs due to inflation.

The proposed budget includes $188,350,588 in revenue and $187,132,736 in expenses.

A budget hearing is scheduled for May 15 before the final budget is presented for board approval on June 5.

This story was originally published May 1, 2023 at 10:27 PM.