While Kent County residents will see a lower county property tax rate starting next month, it might not mean a lower tax bill.
Kent County’s property tax rate will drop to 5.72 cents per $100 of assessed value to avoid collecting more taxes on July 1.
The previous rate was 36 cents per $100 of assessed value.
County Administrator Ken Decker says lowering the rate is solely based on the new assessed value of homes following a court-mandated reassessment.
"The old assessed values were 60% of the 1987 value. The new values are the market value as of July 1, 2023 so naturally that's a much bigger number,” said Decker. “So to make sure the amount of revenue we were collecting is about the same we had to greatly lower the tax rate. So most people won't see much of a difference on their county property tax bill."
He adds reassessment will not change fees that might appear on your tax bill for streetlights, trash & recycling or stormwater.
Decker says even with the first new assessments since 1987 it doesn’t necessarily mean every property is worth more.
"We know that some properties went up a little bit, some went down and when the property you look if it's a home, how long it was built, was it properly reassessed. There have been times where we found people who'd done an addition that didn't get picked up on the tax rolls. That's going to bump someone's tax," said Decker.
Decker notes the expectation is that 1/3 of the people in the county will pay less, 1/3 more and 1/3 will remain about the same.
