Lehighton Area School District is heading toward a 2026-27 budget that would raise property taxes 3.5%. The proposal, unveiled Monday night, would add about $68 a year to the median homeowner’s bill before exclusions and is set for a final vote later this month.

The plan landed at 3.5%, officials said, after two weeks of trimming a steeper proposal, dropping from a 4.8% increase to one that nearly closes the district’s projected shortfall.

Superintendent Jason Moser tied the change to staff savings and reduced spending.

“We told the public that we would not pursue increasing revenue without first exploring decreasing expenditures,” Moser said.

The budget update projects $51.3 million in revenue, up 3.16%, against $51.4 million in spending, up 2.32%. That leaves the proposal short by $69,749, down from a $477,100 gap in the current year’s budget. The numbers count on savings from six retirements and one resignation, and the district expects its early retirement incentive to cut costs further in coming years.

At 3.5%, the tax rate would climb to 53.67 mills, an increase of 1.81 mills over the current 51.86. For the median home, assessed at $46,200, the bill before exclusions would reach $2,479.79, up from $2,411.49 this year.

Moser on Monday defended the recommendation to raise taxes.

“Nobody likes to be sitting here recommending an increase in taxes, but the reality otherwise is you would have to make cuts, and you would have to make cuts that start to hurt students,” he said.

He broke down where the money goes.

“Sixty percent of our overall operating costs as a district is in personnel and salaries,” Moser said. “Our debt service is our debt service, and we can do nothing about that.”

He also responded to calls to lean on the district’s reserves.

“You could plug the gap, but how long can you plug the gap if you never increase any level of revenue?” he said. “You can cut to the bone and balance the budget for this year, and three years from now you’re still looking at the deficit, because costs continue to go up.”

Push for tighter budget

Board member David Bradley pushed to drive the increase lower or eliminate it entirely.

“Most companies reduce their expenses every year because they find ways to be more efficient,” Bradley said. “We need to do that, and we have not done that.”

He pointed to the district’s reserves.

“Even if we have to tap into the excess amount that we’ve collected over the years, you’re talking about less than $1 million, and we have millions sitting in the bank,” he said, citing a $4.5 million unassigned fund balance reported in the 2025 audit.

Bradley framed the increase around residents on fixed incomes, including those behind on their payments.

“We have a whole bunch of homeowners who are struggling so much that we hire attorneys to go after them,” Bradley said. “I bet grandma would rather be here watching her grandkids grow up than in Texas.”

He also pressed a procedural point, saying members were being asked to vote without enough information.

“The board has to do the work, not our subordinate administration,” Bradley said. “There has been so much waste in the past, and the taxes are so high, that it’s time to really look at it from zero-based budgeting.”

Moser countered that the administration already builds the budget that way.

“That is how we operate in our office,” Moser said. “We started departmentally and at a building level by saying, what is it that you actually need, and we went through it line by line with every single building and every single department.”

For homeowners who qualify for the homestead and farmstead exclusion, the increase looks smaller. The exclusion would shave $494 off the median bill, leaving it at $1,985.56 — less than the $2,015.13 those owners paid two years ago, according to the budget’s tax comparison.

On the revenue side, the budget leans on a 5.55% increase in state funding, estimated at the governor’s proposed budget, while federal revenue is projected to fall 9.73%. The district also budgeted delinquent real estate taxes down 13.33%, to $650,000.

The board took a straw poll on the 3.5% plan during Monday’s workshop meeting and is expected to adopt a final budget later this month. Bradley and Jeremy Glaush were the lone dissenting voices. Joy Beers was absent.