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 tentative budget was approved by the Princeton Public Schools Board of Education at its March 18 meeting by a vote of 8-1. School board member Adam Bierman casted the lone dissenting vote.
The school district property tax rate will increase from $1.26 per $100 of assessed value to $1.31. The assessed value is not the same as the market value, which is the sales price of a property.
The owner of a house assessed at the town average of $844,737 would pay $11,100.25 in school district property taxes, which is a $433.21 increase over the prior property tax bill of $10,667.04.
A Princeton property owner’s tax bill includes the school district tax; the municipal property, library and open space taxes; and the Mercer County property and open space taxes.
Business Administrator Matthew Bouldin said the reasons for the increase in the budget range from meeting students’ needs to pressure on health care costs driven by specialty prescription costs and widespread usage of GLP-1 drugs.
There are more students who need extra services and some who are sent out of district to specialized schools. Maintaining small class sizes is another factor, Bouldin said.
Bouldin said salaries, benefits and tuition for the Princeton Charter School account for 82% of spending in the budget, or $83.6 million. Total other expenses are $18.2 million, or 18%.
On the revenue side, property taxes account for 81% of the school district’s revenue. The amount to be raised by property taxes for the operating budget will go up from $87.9 million to $90.5 million.
Other sources of revenue include $2.4 million from Princeton University and $4.9 million in tuition from the Cranbury School District, which sends its high school students to Princeton High School. It does not have its own high school.
The school district will receive $5.6 million in state aid, which is a decrease of $174,774 from the current budget. The district also will apply $3.8 million from its fund balance, or surplus account, as a source of revenue.
Bierman, who voted against the budget, said he was concerned about a potential budget deficit looming in the future.
“We have a volatile future,” he said. “I think we are kind of on the edge when it comes to money coming in and money going out. I plan for the worst and hope for the best.”
Bierman pointed to construction costs and salary increases, and said that while “things are the way they are, we are kind of losing our middle class, our lower middle class. Besides the schools, we have a community.”
Bierman said many of those people are the heart and soul of the town. The Black community – at least the one he knew while he was growing up in Princeton – has disappeared and that is the reality, he said.
