A bill requiring each county to conduct regular property tax reassessments is now law.
Property tax reassessments are currently being done in each county for the first time in decades - the result of a lawsuit against the state and counties over school funding inequities.
HB 62 builds on each county’s settlement of their portion of the lawsuit, in which each agreed to conduct a one-time property reassessment.
The settlements did not require regular reassessments - which could have led to another decades-long gap following the court-mandated reassessments. HB 62 addresses that, requiring each county to conduct reassessments every 5 years.
The bill’s prime sponsor State Rep. Madinah Wilson-Anton says regular reassessments are the first step in creating a more equitable funding system moving forward.
“I think the impact to education equity is going to be a cascading one. And I know a lot of folks, advocates, and community members have been kind of waiting on reassessment to see how property values have shifted over the years, what communities should be paying more what communities should be paying less. I represent an area that I believe to be overtaxed right now, so I'm really interested to see what the numbers look like.”
She adds the regular reassessments will be easier on homeowners moving forward, with no dramatic jumps or drops in taxes due to the decades-long gaps between reassessments.
Senate Majority Whip State Senator Elizabeth Lockman was another sponsor of the bill. She says property reassessment is intrinsically connected to school funding, particularly the local taxation that goes to support public schools.
“Property reassessment is connected to a formula called the equalization formula, which helps us to equally equitably share resources from one district that might be wealthier, to a district that has less wealth. And that translates into every student in the State of Delaware having the resources they need to have a quality education,” explained Lockman. “This has been a big barrier, the fact that we have had these really old assessments, that we have had an equalization formula that has been locked in place for over a decade. And that has hindered our ability to make sure that fair resources are going to all Delaware students.”
She adds she hopes this will help them spark more conversations around school funding moving forward.
New Castle County is the only county that endorsed the bill outright.
It is currently reassessing property for the first time since 1983. County Executive Matt Meyer says they anticipate finishing the process next year, with the new tax bills coming out in 2025.
“I know there's a lot of concerns about property tax bills going way up in this reassessment process. We have committed in the county, with County Council, to do so in a revenue neutral way. This means the New Castle County government will not use it as a way to raise your tax bill.”
The 5-year countdown to the next reassessment starts when the ones currently being conducted by each county are completed.
