Saucon Valley passes 1% tax increase
BY MPH Staff
By six votes to three, the Saucon Valley school board of directors passed a 1% tax increase last night at Saucon Valley School District’s board of directors meeting.
It’s a lower increase than most other districts in the region, which have been hiking taxes significantly amidst rising inflation, salary increases and climbing health care costs.
The 2026-2027 Saucon Valley budget is $57.4 million, down from $59.2 million in 2025-26, and the new millage rises from 55.2055 to 55.7576.
Saucon Valley school district’s two municipalities — Hellertown and Lower Saucon — will likely remain the very lowest in school tax millage rates in Northampton County.
2026-26 Northampton County school tax increases. Generative AI (ChatGPT) used to create this graphic
Included in budget were funds to cover new Apple Macbook Neo laptops for teachers and critical repairs to bleachers, labeled as high-priority need by the board’s finance committee, which worked closely with the district’s administration to grade priorities in the initial budget plans for 2026-2027.
The vote to raise taxes slightly followed a marathon budget-wrangling session and the failure — 3 yes votes to 6 nay — of a measure not to increase taxes.
Directors Bill Broun, Don Carpenter, Viv Demko, Meagan Lomangino and Christian Tatu voted in favor of the budget with the 1% tax increase. Shamim Pakzad, Cedric Dettmar and Jay Santos voted against it.
The board decided against the hiring of nine new teachers and the replacement of two aging school busses (saving almost $1.5 million next year), among other shelved plans and purchases.
