Sussex County officials present the Fiscal Year 2026 budget to County Council.
This is the first budget following the recently completed court-ordered property reassessment which means there’s a new tax rate.
The new rate is proposed for 2.14 cents per $100 of assessed value - a drop from 44.5 cents per $100 assessed value.
But with another reassessment on the horizon, Sussex County Finance Director Gina Jennings says the county has to account for that.
"I expect we're going to be spending $10 million every five years in total. So in order to do that, we are going to have to start budgeting that regularly,” said Jennings. “I do want to point out this is being spent with savings, this is now going to be an ongoing cost. Council's prerogative was that we are going to use savings for the last reassessment project, but now that it's ongoing, we're going to have to look at how we're going to support that in the future."
The county has allotted over $1.6 million in this year’s budget for reassessment.
"The Fiscal Year ‘26 budget $285.1 million, which represents an overall increase of 19.4 million. The increase is being driven by one time capital expenditures in the sewer capital fund. These expenditures include major upgrades and improvements at our Inland Bays and Wolfe Neck, regional wastewater facilities," said Todd Lawson, county administrator for Sussex County.
The proposed budget calls for spending $76.7 million on wastewater infrastructure, new service areas, increased capacity and other upgrades to utility systems.
The general fund portion that covers the day-to-day county operations is up $4 million or 4.4%.
It also allocates $7.4 million to acquire open space and farmland, and increased funding for the county’s contact with the state for 25 supplemental state police troopers.
There are also fee increases, including $33 annually for unmetered water on public utility systems and $12 annually for sewer.
County Council will hold a public hearing on the budget during its meeting on June 17.
