New Castle County Council members Brandon Toole and David Tackett vouch for an audit of portions of the property reassessment finalized earlier this year.
It was the county’s first reassessment in 40 years. The process is revenue neutral, meaning the county doesn’t take in any more money than previous years. Folks might see changes in their tax rate, with some seeing increases, other decreases and some seeing little change.
Tackett said his major concern is that there wasn’t anyone double checking the values presented by Tyler Technologies, which performed the reassessment for the county.
“We had a property call in, and she said that she appealed hers informally and was able to get it down 70,000,” Tackett said. “Well, if one homeowner was able to do that, why are we selecting only one? That should have triggered a review of the whole community.”
Tackett said he doesn’t think the county needs to do a complete reassessment but should look into investing in spot checking to help constituents.
Toole and Tackett said they are responding to an outcry from constituents, adding that Tyler Technologies’ process of evaluating residential and commercial properties was confusing even for them.
Residential and commercial properties were evaluated differently in the effort to reflect the current market.
“For me personally, the valuation process for commercial properties, to me, needs a little bit more explaining,” Toole said. “I don't even understand the valuation process for commercial properties. So that's where my interest came about.”
Toole added he thinks folks needed more time in an adjustment period. Residents had opportunities to do informal and formal appeals in the last year. Five thousand appeals are still in the county’s queue, Toole said.
“I have a particular constituent that owns two parcels of land,” Toole said. “One land is basically a ditch, and it really shouldn't be owned by a residential homeowner. And last year, she paid $150 in taxes on that parcel. No big deal. This year it's over $1,200 in taxes. So she didn't realize that she should have appraised it. So there's a lot of people that weren't originally concerned about the tax implications.”
Tackett said he thinks the approach to commercial properties was flawed.
“Tyler [Technologies] should have evaluated those commercial properties on the zoning of the property's location, the square footage of the buildings and where they were at, as opposed to trying to look at how much they made,” Tackett said.
He added he thinks small businesses have seen more hikes than larger corporations, and he wants to offer constituents some answers and relief.
Toole and Tackett are working to get their request on the County Council agenda and discuss it with County Executive Marcus Henry and the county auditor.
