Sussex County is working to help residents understand their tax bills following property reassessment.
The court-ordered reassessment stems from a 2020 education funding lawsuit, prompting Sussex County's first update since 1974.
Tax bills using the new property values and adjusted tax rates will be sent out later this week to homeowners.
Sussex County Chief Operating Officer and Finance Director Gina Jennings says the effect reassessment has on a tax bill will vary widely depending on location.
“We actually saw 75% of our properties either would get a decrease or stay the same when it came to their tax bills. Then you apply all of the tax rates that the jurisdictions put in place, so when the tax bills come out later this week, a little less than half are actually going to see an increase in their tax bills." she told DPM.
Values for each property were finalized earlier this year, and the appeals process for these assessments has ended already, but Jennings says that another appeal window will open again at the beginning of next year.
Jennings notes a tax calculator tool will be available on the County’s website this week to help residents understand their bill.
“And what the tax calculator will do is it will pull in last year's tax bill and this year’s tax bill and show the difference between those." she said. "So you can see if your bill went up or went down, and it’ll also show you where it went up. So did the school get more money or did the county get more money.”
Increases in county and school taxes related to reassessment sparked a firestorm in New Castle County and prompted a special session of the General Assembly next week to address the issue.
