The Cape Henlopen School District proposes not raising its tax rate this year.
Cape Henlopen’s current tax rate is around 17 cents per $100 of assessed property value and would remain unchanged this year under the budget plan, in part due to a slowing of the district's growth.
Cape Henlopen School District Finance director Oliver Gumbs.
“I can tell you that our assessed value growth over the last year is at 1.04%, which is a lot lower than we’re used to but we’re monitoring it. So, this proposal that we’re bringing to you it will be a total flat tax rate” he said.
Gumbs says the district is still growing, just not as fast, something he notes is peculiar due to the high level of growth in the community.
"When you drive around in our neighborhoods, it doesn't look like things are slowing down," he said.
While the overall tax rate will not increase, the district is proposing to shift tax rates in certain tax categories. It will increase tuition rates by around 1 cent and decrease its rates for match taxes and capital improvements.
Those rates remaining unchanged is something Superintendent Jenny Nauman strongly supports.
“Its also important for me to make a recommendation to not raise taxes. I am not in favor of that with the economy that we have and the expenses that our community is dealing with at this time-" she said.
Nauman says that for every 1% the schools assessed value grows, it's approximately $650,000 in revenue- the school falling short of their projected growth is equal to around $2 million in expected revenue that the school district is no longer receiving, she said.
Despite this, Nauman says that she still doesn't think the school should raise taxes, and should instead look to save costs elsewhere for the time being,
"[I want] to remain neutral, tighten our belt, figure out what’s going on and then reassess procedures as we see how much we grow, and how much unit growth is moving forward." she said. "For me, it's cutting ancillary things. I still want class sizes to be small, I want kids to not feel any of our cuts, but we'll start thinking forward to, does this mean referendum? What is this going to mean in the future?"
The board will discuss the proposal again -and potentially take action- during its next meeting on July 9th.
