Fox Chapel board approves 2.3% tax increase in proposed 2025–26 budget after detailed review

The Fox Chapel Area School District board on Tuesday approved a proposed final general fund operating budget for fiscal 2025–26 that includes a 2.3% increase in current real estate taxes.

District finance presenter Kim Polaschak presented the budget figures during the meeting, saying the proposed final budget reflects updated certified assessed values received May 2 and revisions to personnel costs. The proposed budget lists revenues of $120,709,693 and total budgeted expenditures (including a $1.5 million budgetary reserve) of $123,187,421, leaving a planned net draw on fund balance; the administration said available fund balances would cover the shortfall while leaving an unassigned ending balance near the board’s 5–8% policy target.

The 2.3% recommended tax increase (0.4948 mills) was presented as the administration’s response to a 0.37% decline in taxable assessments that reduced revenue by more than $250,000. Polaschak said the district also received a larger state property tax relief allocation for the coming year — about $2,552,187 — which raises the homestead exclusion benefit for eligible homeowners.

Board members questioned details of the homestead/farmstead exemption and how the millage change would affect individual taxpayers. Polaschak and other district staff said the homestead exemption reduces the assessed value used to compute school taxes for qualifying primary residences, that 7,843 properties were approved as homestead exempt this year (an increase of 17 from 2024–25), and that the homestead reduction in the proposed budget translates to an…