Princeton property owners will see a five-cent increase in the school district property tax rate, based on the district’s $111.3 million operating budget for the 2025-26 school year.
The budget, which is $2.8 million more than than the 2024-25 budget of $108.5 million, was approved at the school board’s April 29 meeting.
The school district property tax rate will increase from $1.26 per $100 of assessed value to $1.31. The owner of a house assessed at the town average of $844,737 will pay $11,100.25 in school district property taxes, which is a $439.92 increase over the prior tax bill of $10,667.04.
A Princeton property owner’s tax bill includes the school district property tax; the municipal property, library and open space taxes; and the Mercer County property and open space taxes.
School district officials cited meeting students’ needs as one of the reasons for the operating budget increase. There are more students who need extra services and some who are sent out of district to specialized schools, officials said. Maintaining small class sizes is another factor.
Also, there is pressure on health care costs driven by specialty prescription costs, such as the widespread use of GLP-1 drugs, for school district employees.
Tuition for the Princeton Charter School, as well as salaries and benefits for school district staff, account for 82% of spending in the operating budget, or $83.6 million. The total of other expenses is $18.2 million, or 18%.
The total property tax levy for the 2025-26 is $97.8 million. Of that amount, $90.5 million is earmarked for the operating budget, which includes salaries and other expenses, and $7.3 million for debt service to pay for money borrowed through bond referendums.
Other sources of revenue include $2.4 million from Princeton University; $4.9 million in tuition from the Cranbury School District, which sends its high school students to Princeton High School; and $5.6 million in state aid. The district also apply $3.8 million from its fund balance, or surplus account, as a source of revenue.
Meanwhile, the school district’s debt service more than doubled from $3.1 million in the 2024-25 budget to $7.3 million in the 2025-26 budget. Voters approved an $89.1 million bond referendum to expand and renovate four of the six schools ahead of increased student enrollment from new housing developments.
The school district’s debt service had been steadily declining from its recent peak of $6.6 million in 2020-21 until approval of the bond referendum in January.
School board member Beth Behrend said voters had approved four bond referendums in the last five or six years. The money was spent on new roofs, heating ventilation and air conditioning systems (HVAC) and repairs to the schools.
“This year we did the work on capacity (to expand the schools for increased enrollment), so it did make a big jump in property taxes,” Behrend said.
“We have now brought the buildings up to speed, so what projects we see in the near future, we will take out of capital reserves,” she said. “We do not intend to go back to the taxpayers.”
