New Castle County Council unanimously passes its Fiscal Year 2025 operating and capital budgets.
The operating budget is about 342.4 million, about a 3.3 percent increase from last year, and includes no property tax or sewer rate increases.
Council debated eight amendments to the operating budget, half of which were to eliminate several positions originally funded by ARPA.
Councilman Dave Carter suggested that positions and programs that have proven successful should remain.
“So the question shouldn’t be if they were just ARPA, do they or don’t they stay? The question should be, were they really good projects, perhaps pilot projects, that solved a public problem and did it well enough that we want to continue it?” Carter says.
Council voted to keep all of the positions – including a Hope Center Assistant Manager, a chef at the Reader’s Cafe at the Route 9 library, five parks positions, and a small business enterprise coordinator.
Councilmen Brandon Toole and Dave Tackett were the two opposing votes.
Council also voted to keep $421,000 in funding for Project SEED, a county police department initiative to increase community engagement and reduce violence in underserved neighborhoods.
Councilman Jea Street spoke in opposition to the funding.
“We’ve had more uses of deadly force than in any other time in our history," Street says. "We ended up paying several million dollars altogether for the scandal, several million dollars already and more to come with the litigation as a result of deadly force. How much money are we supposed to just let the police have?”
Council unanimously approved an amendment to sending an additional $1 million to the Department of Public Safety for fire company grants.
But before that, council voted against an amendment to simply increase fire service funding by another $6.75 million.
Councilman George Smiley argues the Public Safety department needs to justify its need for that funding.
“Why shouldn’t they have to come and ask for it?" he says. "Why shouldn’t they have to justify that they need the money? Our own departments within the county, if they need something different, they have to come to us with legislation, they have to make the case. Why should the taxpayers not be able to hold the fire service accountable?”
Councilman Dave Carter notes that amount of money represents a 4.8 percent tax increase.
Council President Karen Hartley-Nagle, Councilman David Tackett and Councilman Brandon Toole were the only ones to support the failed funding amendment.
Council also passed a $34.2 million capital budget for FY25 – big ticket items include $4.7 million for the Newark Library, $11 million in water and sewer improvements, and almost $11 million for park improvements.
