Like the state, school districts started their fiscal year on July 1st.  In Washington County, where the first reassessment since the 1980s has gone into effect this year (reflecting 2015 market value and a 100% ratio of assessed value to market value) taxing bodies had to adjust their millage rates to reflect the updated value and adjusted ratio.  The County and the municipalities did so earlier this year; now the County’s school districts have done the same.

Millage rates range from a high of 15.83 mills in Charleroi to 9.696 in Bethlehem Center.  The average millage will be 12.11 for the 2017-18 school year (by comparison the average millage in Allegheny County’s school millage was 21.2 in 2016-17).  Since values Countywide rose 10.53% the millages last year (which averaged 122 mills) had to be adjusted.  Act 1 of 2006 instructs school districts in a reassessment year to hold tax rates in the year of reassessment to no more than the previous year’s Act 1 index.

Now taxpayers in Washington County have updated values, and adjusted millages for their County, municipal, and school district taxes.