How municipal taxes are changing this year for Butler County residents, compare your rate
After the dust settled on the budget-making process for 2025, nine municipalities in Butler County decided to implement tax increases for the coming year.
Municipalities that will implement increases this year are Buffalo, Clinton, Mercer and Winfield townships, as well as Connoquenessing, Evans City, Saxonburg, Valencia and Zelienople boroughs.
Valencia’s tax raise, from 7.5 mills to 10 mills, was especially notable because it marked the first time in more than 30 years that the borough took the step.
Council member Torey Verts blamed this on a budget shortfall caused by a lack of taxable property. Tax-exempt nonprofit St. Barnabas Health System owns a majority of taxable land in the small borough.
Winfield Township raised their tax rate from 6 to 7 mills.
According to township Supervisor Matthew Klabnik, the increase will fund three bridge reconstruction projects. Including one for the bridge over Smith Road, which was damaged in a vehicle accident in July; as well as Center Avenue, which has been closed for years.
“We had done a $1 million grant application for two of the bridges, and we got $130,000 from that grant application, so we’re looking to close the gap,” Klabnik said.
Residents of Buffalo Township will see the biggest hike.
Their tax rate will go from 9.5 mills to 13.5 mills — an increase of 42.1% over 2024. Combined with the previous year’s increase from 7.5 mills to 9.5 mills, Buffalo Township residents have seen their municipal tax rate go up 80% from 2023 to 2025.
Rich Hill, Buffalo Township manager, has said that even with the increases, the township’s cut of residents’ tax receipts is still relatively small compared to that of Butler County and the Freeport Area School District. The county’s tax rate is 27.626 mills, while Freeport imposes the highest millage rate of any school district in Butler County at 176.37 mills.
Of the county’s 57 municipalities, Buffalo Township currently ranks 12th in regards to highest municipal taxes.
Of all the municipalities in to raise taxes in Butler County, the smallest tax increase was in Evans City, which saw its total millage rate go up by only 0.25 mills, from 24.5 to 24.75, or 1.02%.
According to borough council member Cheri Deener, the small raise was for the borough’s fire tax, which benefits the Evans City Volunteer Fire Department. The fire tax went from 1.5 mills to 1.75 mills.
In the opposite direction went Harrisville, the only municipality in Butler County to actually lower its millage rate — albeit slightly — from 16.5 mills to 16. This was as a result of cutting the borough’s EMS tax from 1 mill to 0.5 mills.
According to council member Kathy Bray, this was due to a mistake from the previous year.
“The council at the time did not realize that the EMS tax could only be half a mill,” Bray said. “Anything over that has to be put up as a referendum for the voters. This was not done, thus the decrease.”
The borough’s general tax rate of 13.25 remains unchanged, as does its fire tax of 2.25.
Residents of the City of Butler currently pay the highest municipal tax rate in Butler County, at 44 mills, which has remained unchanged since 2021.
A mill is equal to $1 for every $1,000 of a property’s assessed value.
