Montco School Tax Increases For 2019-20, District-By-District

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, PA — Montgomery County has 22 school districts. Which one has biggest tax increase this year?

A recent analysis by the Philadelphia Inquirer, which looked at districts in Bucks, Montgomery, Chester, and Delaware Counties to determine the largest tax increases, shows where residents in Montgomery County will contribute the most.

Colonial School District, covering the Plymouth-Whitemarsh area, is experiencing the county's largest percent tax increase this year, the analysis says. Residents there will pay 3.9 percent more in 2019-20, which is an additional $129 for the average homeowner.

Overall, residents in Colonial will now pay $3,428, according to the report.

Colonial has not been at the top of the local tax increase list in recent years. The Inquirer analysis shows the district experienced a 13 percent tax increase in the past five years — but that's easily outstripped by a number of other districts over the same period of time, including Wissahickon and Norristown, both at 17 percent.

The next highest increase for 2019-20 in Montgomery County is Pottstown, which is seeing a 3.3 percent raise.

The following districts also have increases that range from 2.2 to 2.9 percent: Upper Moreland, Wissahickon, Upper Perkiomen, Norristown, Cheltenham, Spring-Ford, North Penn, Lower Merion, Hatboro-Horsham, Jenkintown, Upper Merion, and Upper Dublin.

Abington is the only Montgomery County school district that is not raising its taxes this year. Pottsgrove is only increasing by 0.6 percent, and Methacton is the next lowest, at 1.1 percent.

You may be wondering how your tax dollars are translating to school performance.

A new school district ranking was released last week by data compiler Niche, and Montgomery County dominated the top 50.

Lower Merion (3rd), Upper Dublin (14th), Colonial (16th), North Penn (17th), Wissahickon (19th), Spring-Ford (24th), Lower Moreland (28th), Perkiomen Valley (31st), Jenkintown (43rd), Souderton (44th), and Abington (49th) all made the top 50. (You can read more about the methodology here.)

With reporting from Patch editor Kara Seymour