As Wilmington City Council approved the upcoming fiscal year and budget and property tax rate, discussion focused on lingering questions about property reassessment values in the city.
While the council wasn’t unanimously behind the tax rate or budget, there seemed to be more of a consensus on the property reassessment.
There was frustration and anger from council members about the reassessment work done by Tyler Technologies.
City Council President Trippi Congo called them out, saying they got Wilmington wrong, and with it being a minority majority city it “seemed like something evil happened.”
Councilman Coby Owens last week argued accepting a tax rate based off of the current reassessment was validating a flawed system, but Council still passed that tax rate and budget despite their reservations.
Other council members voted for the property tax rate begrudgingly because it was needed for the budget to be approved, but mentioned their dissatisfaction with the reassessment.
Wilmington Mayor John Carney’s Deputy Chief of Staff Daniel Walker says the plan is to work on finding a solution to the reassessment issue moving forward.
"Still, in the process of uncovering what the fix is and the how, right? I think we all agree on the goal, we want to be fair and equitable, but it's really the how that is going to be our focus for over the next year,” said Walker. “We have a year to get this right, and we're committed to doing that."
Walker notes residents unhappy with their reassessment can file for an appeal every year.
Walker says they have New Castle County’s backing to seek solutions moving forward.
"The county executive has said that they are supportive of making sure we feel comfortable with the rates and whatever they need to do to get us to that level of comfort, including looking at the calculation and how it was done they are standing here with us to do that," said Walker.
Wilmington also implemented a change to the senior property tax exemption program with the new eligibility criteria now being households at 100 percent of the Federal Poverty Level.
The new change which is permanent applies to the first $210,000 of the assessed home value, and the goal is to provide relief to seniors on fixed income to make sure they can stay in their homes and communities.
