State lawmakers voted on Tuesday to pass a bill requiring each county to conduct property tax reassessments every five years.
All three Delaware counties are currently undertaking time-intensive and expensive reassessments – the first in more than three decades. State Sen. Elizabeth Lockman, the bill’s Senate sponsor, underscores that relying on decades-old valuations was an equity issue. Kent County, for instance, had not reassessed property values since 1987.
“We also know that this has created a significant disparity in assessed values among the hundreds of thousands of properties across our state," she said, "and because of the inextricable link between those values and local taxation, also disparities and school funding inequities that cannot be ignored.”
All three counties were forced to begin reassessments after a 2021 education funding lawsuit brought by civil rights groups.
The state Senate passed legislation Tuesday requiring all three counties to undergo a reassessment every five years – a proposal that received some support from each county’s legislative branch, though only New Castle County Council endorsed the bill outright.
State Sen. Eric Buckson, a former Kent County Levy Court commissioner, says while the reassessment process is costly and time-consuming, Kent County does not want to risk another round of litigation.
“Nobody wants to do this, but it is what it is. I did talk to the counties – Kent County specifically – and they recognize the five years as a fair approach," he said.
The bill passed in the House in early May with limited Republican opposition; it passed in the Senate with similarly limited opposition and now heads to Gov. Carney for final approval.
