Fox Chapel Area School District officials pledge to keep any tax increase in 2022-23 within state cap

Fox Chapel Area property owners should not expect to see any hike in real estate taxes beyond 3.4% for next school year.

School district officials recently approved a resolution pledging to keep any tax hike within an inflation-based state limit.

Act 1, passed in 2006 to provide property tax relief, sets a tax cap for school districts to cover normal inflationary costs and still pass a balanced budget without exceeding the tax hike cap.

In Fox Chapel’s case, the index for next school year is 3.4%, or 0.6843-mill. The current millage rate is 20.1 mills.

The median home value in the district is $217,800.

A hike to the index would equate to about $147 more in taxes, according to the district’s millage impact chart.

The district raised taxes for the current school year’s budget by 1.3%.

District Business Manager Kimberly Pawlishak deferred comments to district spokeswoman Bonnie Berzonski.

“The school board’s approval to not increase the tax rate above the Act 1 index in the 2022-2023 budget does not necessarily mean that the district will be raising millage to that extent,” Berzonski said. “The Act 1 index is simply the maximum amount that the millage rate could be raised.

”The budget process is in the very preliminary stages, and more information will be forthcoming in the next few weeks. As budget meetings with the board are scheduled, they will be announced.”

Passing the resolution allows the district to skip having to approve a preliminary budget and send it to the state Department of Education in the early months of the year.

District officials plan to present a preliminary budget in May and formally pass next school year’s spending plan by the end of June.

“In the process leading up to that, during conversations, as we’re looking at the budget and we’re looking at expenditures and we’re looking at what makes sense, we’ll make some recommendations to the board,” Superintendent Mary Catherine Reljac said.

Board member Amy Cooper believes Reljac and her administrative team will do all it can to maintain programs and educational opportunities for students while being mindful of all taxpayers.

“I think the district needs to be a good steward of what our community provides,” Cooper said. “School budgets are complicated in ‘normal’ times and these last couple of years have been challenging. I am confident in our district’s administrative team’s ability to craft a budget. They have been thorough and responsive to our questions in my budget experience on the board.”