Statewide, approximately 85 percent of school districts are planning to raise property taxes for the 2016-17 school year, a figure mirrored in Delaware County, writes Kevin Tustin for the Daily Times.

Twelve Delco school districts have approved a tax increase of between one and 3.62 percent, putting the county average at 2.1 percent. Marple Newtown and Upper Darby remain unchanged, while Chester-Upland was not included due to a lack of data.

Twelve districts have also agreed to use part of their fund balance to supplement their budgets, while Marple Newtown and Haverford will not be using any fund balance money.

Of the dozen school districts increasing taxes, Chichester had the lowest increase of one percent, followed by a 1.5 percent rise for William Penn and 1.66 percent for Ridley.

Among the highest are Penn-Delco and Interboro at 2.9 percent, Wallingford-Swarthmore at 3.4 percent, and Radnor at 3.62 percent. All of these are over the state-mandated Act 1 index maximum of 2.4 percent.

Expenses like salaries and benefits were cited among the stronger drivers for budget increases across the county. However, the biggest cost was contributions to the Public School Employees’ Retirement System, which has more than doubled for school districts over the past five years.

Read more about the tax increase in the Daily Times by clicking here.