As 2025 comes to an end local municipalities have been finishing up their budget planning and tax rates for 2026.
Among the six Centre Region municipalities — State College Borough and College, Ferguson, Halfmoon, Harris and Patton townships — three will have real estate tax increases for 2026. State College’s property tax is set to increase by 8.7%, Patton Township’s by 11% and Harris Township’s by 6.1%.
College Township, which is scheduled to approve its final budget on Dec. 30, Ferguson Township and Halfmoon Township will see no change to real estate millage.
Elsewhere in the county, Bellefonte will have a 0.1 mill increase for EMS. Countywide, Centre County’s 2026 budget, adopted on Tuesday, contains no tax increase for the 16th consecutive year.
Here’s a look at the 2026 budgets and tax rates around the Centre Region.
STATE COLLEGE BOROUGH
Millage rate: 24.880
Change: +2 mils
The tax increase in State College’s $72.2 million 2026 budget was the subject of much debate during discussions over more than a month. Borough administrators initially proposed an eight-mill increase that would have produced State College’s first structurally balanced budget in five years.
Council members, however, generally opposed a steep single-year increase. Instead, the borough will transfer $2.8 million in unexpected real estate transfer tax revenue received this month and $1.2 million from street projects now deferred until 2027 to the general fund to reduce the tax hike down to two mills.
Still, most members expressed uneasiness about continuing the borough’s structural deficit and council vowed to begin addressing the imbalance of recurring revenues and expenditures early next year.
The total budget for 2026, which Borough Manager Tom Fountaine described as very much status quo” with no new employee positions and some projects pushed to future years includes expenditures of $72,236,740, $3.8 million less than 2025. Projected revenues are $60,561,259, with $11,675,481 million allocated from designated fund balances, as is typical.
The overall budget includes a general fund budget, which represents current expenses and income and which would have been balanced under the original proposal, with expenditures of $43,654,648 and revenues of $39,571,598, marking the sixth consecutive year it will be structurally unbalanced.
COLLEGE TOWNSHIP
Millage rate: 6.10
Change: None
For the fifth consecutive year, College Township will have no real estate tax increase in 2026.
“The credit really extends back several years to the American Recovery [Plan Act] funds and what we decided to do with them, and more importantly what we decided not to do with them,” College Township Council Chair Eric Bernier said during a budget review on Dec. 4. “So kudos to everyone. Really this is the culmination of work over many years…. The fruits of those tough decisions are bearing right now.”
The budget includes $16,400,437 in revenue and $16,778,285 expenditures, with available reserves accounting for the difference.
For the first time, the budget will include Local Share Account funds from state gaming revenue as a host municipality for a casino, which is expected to open at the Nittany Mall in the spring. The township projects a $762,000 LSA payment in the casino’s first year.
On the expenditure side, capital projects make up about a third of the budget at 5.68 million. Payroll and benefits total $3.80 million (22.65%); 265 hours a week of contracted police service from the State College Police Department is $ 1.93 million (11.5%); regional programs are $1.812 million (10.8%); and all other spending, such as IT, utilities and insurance, is $2.942 million (17.5%)
FERGUSON TOWNSHIP
Millage rate: 3.172
Increase: None
After enacting its first real estate tax increase in 19 years for 2025, Ferguson Township initially considered a one-mill hike for the 2026 budget. While not specifically dedicated to fire protection, it was intended to support the township’s increasing contribution to the regional fire protection program which has grown by 41% over two years.
After public pushback on what would have been a 31.5% increase, the Board of Supervisors voted it down and opted to keep the millage rate flat for 2026.
The township has also rescinded fees assessed for property owners within 780 feet of a hydrant and those who front a street serviced by streetlights. The remaining balance of those funds will cover future hydrant and streetlight expenses until they reach zero.
General fund budget expenditures for 2026 are $19.2 million, a 2.88% increase and recurring revenue is $15.6 million, an 11.43% decrease.
Earned income taxes constitute more than half of the township’s general fund revenues at $8.8 million, followed by property taxes at $1.97 million and real estate transfer taxes at $1.35 million.
Personnel services are nearly half of the general fund expenditures at $9.4 million, a 1.74% increase. Other services and total $7.9 million, a 3.12% increase, and supplies are about $1 million, a 3.22% increase.
HALFMOON TOWNSHIP
Millage rate: 7.37
Change: None
Halfmoon Township will have no real estate tax increase for a fourth consecutive year.
After the budget was adopted on Dec. 18 but before the Board of Supervisors approved the resolution to set the tax rate for 2026, outgoing board Chair Dave Piper motioned to reduce the real estate millage by two mills, the equivalent of about $164,000. Piper noted that the township had abut $200,000 in surplus income from 2025 which is designated for transfer to the capital fund and suggested using a portion of that to instead offset the proposed millage reduction, with about $40,000 going to the capital fund.
Piper also pointed to the township’s more than $950,000 in operating reserves.
Supervisor Tammy Perkins said the township has a number of building and road projects to plan for and existing reserves “are not going to go very far.” The board ultimately voted down Piper’s motion 3-2.
The township’s $1.5 million budget includes a general fund budget with $1.22 million in expenditures and revenue.
HARRIS TOWNSHIP
Millage rate: 8.70
Change: +0.5 mils
Harris Township’s Board of Supervisors approved a 0.5-mill real estate tax increase, slightly above the 0.25 mills initially recommended by Township Manager Mark Boeckel, at its Dec. 8 meeting. Boeckel wrote in a budget memo that because expenditures would slightly outpace revenues, the modest increase would align revenues and expenditures, preserve the policy-required fund balance and produce a balanced budget for 2026.
The total budget has $5.17 million in revenues and expenditures, and includes a $3.7 million general fund budget.
Projected revenues, Boeckel wrote, reflect “a period of slower growth and development, as well as broader demographic and economic trends.”
“Expenditures, however, continue to be affected by inflationary pressures, rising healthcare costs, and the increasing expenses associated with maintaining high-quality services-both within the Township and through cooperative regional initiative,” he added.
Township staff have taken steps to limit expenditure growth in the 2026 budget, Boeckel wrote. Throughout 2025, costs for routine purchases were analyzed, and the resulting adjustments reduced ongoing operating costs, with savings applied to offset projected increases in other budget categories, according to the memo.
PATTON TOWNSHIP
Millage rate: 12.1
Increase: +1.2 mills
Real estate taxes in Patton Township will increase for a third consecutive year.
Township Manager Amy Farkas wrote in a budget introduction that staff and the Board of Supervisors have discussed at numerous points the past two years the need “to strategically enact real estate tax increases to account for rising operating costs due to inflation and other factors.”
Of the total increase, 0.2 mills will be applied to the general purpose millage, 0.4 to regional library contributions and 0.6 to regional fire protection program costs.
The 2026 budget approved by the Board of Supervisors on Dec. 10 includes $15.5 million in expenditures, a $2.46 million increase from 2025, and $14.7 million in revenue, a $2.25 million increase.
Real estate taxes account for the largest revenue source at $6.7 million, followed by intergovernmental payments at $3.3 million and earned income tax at $2.9 million.
Police are the township’s largest expenditure, with $4.58 million budgeted for 2026. Public works expenditures total $4.38 million and general government services are $2.1 million.
Projects planned for 2026 include the start of design for the renovation and expansion of the township’s public works facility; replacement of police and public works radios; completion of design work for Grays Woods Park and for the Scotia Road shared-use path connector; and road improvements on East Hillside Drive and Valley Vista Drive from North Atherton Street to Carnegie Drive.
