Property owners in Tamaqua will be paying a higher tax rate in 2026.
Earlier this week, Borough Council members voted to adopt their $14 million spending plan for next year and set the new millage at 4.75. Last year’s millage was 23.75.
That means for every $1,000 in assessed value (using the new reassessment valuation), a Tamaqua property owner must pay $4.75. A property valued at $100,000 would cost the owner $475 in tax to the Borough.
Due to the countywide reassessment, municipalities were forced to set an equalized, revenue-neutral millage that would generate the exact same amount of property tax revenue as it did in 2025.
Council members can then vote to raise that millage by a maximum of 10%. In Tamaqua, the tax hike for 2026 is 9.9%.
Of that 4.75 mills, 4.48 mills goes to the General Fund, 0.20 mill is set aside for the Building and Equipment Fund, 0.05 mill goes to the Wabash Improvement Fund, and 0.02 contributes to the Street Light Fund.
According to Borough Manager Kevin Steigerwalt, Tamaqua last raised its property taxes in 2023, raising the rate by 0.25 mill. The year before that, they went up 1 mill.
Steigerwalt says two major projects the Borough is undertaking right now are the primary driving factors of the necessary tax increase in 2026.
A $4.4 million project to renovate a downtown building into a new police station required Tamaqua to take on $1.675 million in debt (through a loan).
Also, the cost of a new public swimming pool currently under construction came in over the initial estimate, so Tamaqua is covering that additional expense.
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