The Court ordered the parties to the litigation to send you a notice.  If you have received notice of this proposed settlement and Court hearing, it is because you have been identified as a property owner in the Lower Merion School District (“the District”) who paid school real property taxes (“school taxes”) in tax years 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, and/or 2022.

The notice informed you that the parties to Wolk, Brandeis, and Marchand versus Lower Merion School District, pending in the Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas, have reached an agreement to settle the litigation. The Court will hold a supplemental hearing on October 18, 2022 at 9:30 a.m. Eastern Time in Courtroom 9 of the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, Pennsylvania to determine whether the terms of the parties’ proposed settlement are fair and reasonable, and to approve the settlement. The Honorable Richard P. Haaz will preside at the hearing. The settlement will not become effective unless and until the Court approves it.

Arthur Alan Wolk, on behalf of himself and the Settlement Class, brought an action in the Court of Common Pleas of Montgomery County on February 1, 2016 against the Lower Merion School District. Mr. Wolk filed the lawsuit on behalf of himself and on behalf of property owners in the Lower Merion School District who paid school taxes in tax years 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and/or 2021. This lawsuit included allegations about the District’s spending, budgeting, and tax increases. A preliminary injunction was issued on August 29, 2016 that ordered the District to change the 2016-2017 tax increase from 4.44% to 2.40%. The District denied the Plaintiffs’ allegations and denied that it is liable for the claims asserted.

Plaintiffs and the District have negotiated in good faith to resolve all claims subject to certain conditions. Plaintiffs and the District agree that it is in the best interests of the District, taxpayers, and the students of the District to settle this matter.

The Court will hold a hearing to evaluate the fairness and reasonableness of the proposed terms of the settlement, and the Parties’ Agreement will not become effective unless and until the Court approves it.

There is a change in the proposed property owners who would receive checks as part of this settlement. Under the parties’ current proposal, property owners in the Lower Merion School District who paid school real property taxes in tax years 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and/or 2021 would receive a check from the $15 million portion of the proposed settlement.

As part of the terms of the proposed settlement, the District would provide $15 million total to taxpayers who owned real property in the District and who paid school real property taxes in tax years 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and/or 2021. If the Court approves the settlement, the checks would be sent to those taxpayers within 45 days after the Order approving the terms of settlement. The amount each taxpayer receives will be proportional to the amount of school taxes that taxpayer paid. The total amount of school taxes each taxpayer paid from 2016 through 2021 will be calculated as a percentage of the total amount of school taxes the District received from 2016 through 2021, and that percentage will be multiplied by $15 million to identify the amount each taxpayer will receive. By way of example only, if the District received a total of $240 million in school taxes from 2016 through 2021, and if one taxpayer paid $12,000 in school taxes during that time period, that taxpayer would receive a check for $750 (which is .005 percent of $15 million).

If you receive a check and cash it, you will release on your own behalf and on behalf of any of your affiliates, predecessors or successors in interest, heirs, assigns, and current and former agents, the District and its respective affiliates, predecessors or successors in interest, heirs, assigns, and current and former agents, Directors, Administrators, employees, advisors, and counsel of and from any and all actions, claims, liabilities, suits, causes of action, debts, charges, complaints, obligations, demands, expenses, obligations, damages, attorneys’ fees, and debts that each Party ever had or now has, whether known or unknown, whether asserted or unasserted, for or by reason of any cause, matter, or thing whatsoever, whether pursuant to statute, common law, or otherwise, from the beginning of time to the date of the approval of the Settlement Agreement, including but not limited to the claims and counterclaims and causes of actions (except for Count VI), arising from or relating to the facts and matters alleged in Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas Civil Action No. 2016-01839, Wolk v. Lower Merion School District.

The District has further agreed to certain prospective relief, including (1) a school tax millage rate of 31.2045 for the 2022-2023 fiscal year, which is the millage rate that would currently be in effect if the 2016 preliminary injunction order had been implemented that year; (2) a credit in the amount of $4 million per year in tax bills to be sent in 2023, 2024, and 2025; and (3) the potential for certain credits to be applied to tax bills in those and future years, depending upon whether certain surpluses occur. The credits in the tax bills for 2023 and forward will apply only to taxpayers who own property in Lower Merion School District as of the dates the tax bills are sent.

The District will also reimburse $100,000 in costs incurred by Arthur Alan Wolk, the attorney for the class, in conducting the litigation. He served without an attorneys’ fee.

The terms of this Settlement Agreement do not exclude you from any obligations to pay 2022 school taxes.

The tax bills you received correctly reflect the amount of school district tax that is to be paid this year, regardless of whether the Court approves the settlement. This tax bill reflected a negotiated school tax millage rate of 31.2045. That millage rate was calculated by (1) starting with the millage rate basis that would have been in place if the tax increase for 2016 had been 2.40% instead of 4.44%, which was part of the preliminary injunction order; (2) was increased to account for the tax increases implemented each year between 2016 and 2021; and (3) was further increased by 3.4%, which was the maximum amount of the index tax increase allowed under Act 1 for 2022-2023. The overall effective tax increase on you was 1.39%.

If the settlement is approved, the Settlement Administrator will use reasonable efforts to identify property owners who are entitled to receive checks and who have moved, including using the National Change of Address database and skip tracing for returned notices and checks. However, if you believe you are entitled to receive a check and have moved or are in the process of moving, you may update your address on record with the Settlement Administrator at the following addresses:

By email: info@LMSDbudgetsettlement.com
By Mail: LMSD Budget Settlement Administrator
1650 Arch Street, Suite 2210
Philadelphia, PA 19103

The millage rate in the 2022 tax bill applies to property owners who owed the property as of the date the tax bills were sent.

The credits in the tax bills for 2023 and forward will apply only to taxpayers who own property in Lower Merion School District as of the dates the tax bills are sent.

The Court will hold a supplemental hearing on October 18, 2022 at 9:30 a.m. Eastern Time in Courtroom 9 of the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, Pennsylvania to determine whether the terms of the parties’ proposed settlement are fair and reasonable and to approve the settlement. That hearing is open to the public. The Court will decide whether to approve the settlement after that hearing.

If a person owned real property in the District in at least one of the tax years between 2016 and 2021 and paid school real property taxes but is now deceased, the check would go to the decedent’s estate. If you are the representative of such a person or the executor of such an estate, please contact the Settlement Administrator at LMSD Budget Settlement Administrator, 1650 Arch Street, Suite 2210, Philadelphia, PA 19103 by mail, or by email at info@LMSDbudgetsettlement.com for more information on the paperwork you need to provide.

You can view a copy of the Settlement Agreement by clicking here and can view a copy of the Consent Motion to Certify Settlement for Defined Taxpayers by clicking here.

You also may submit written questions to the LMSD Budget Settlement Administrator, 1650 Arch Street, Suite 2210, Philadelphia, PA 19103 by mail, or by email to info@LMSDbudgetsettlement.com. Do not contact the Court directly for information.